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June 22, 2021 Industry Trends

Demand for doctors is far outstripping supply. The United States will face a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2034, according to projections out this month from the Association of American Medical Colleges. Already, many Americans are struggling to get the care they need. About 35% of patients had trouble finding a doctor in the past several years, according to a 2019 survey. That's up from 25% in 2015. This physician shortage disproportionately affects Americans in rural and historically neglected urban areas. Medical schools are taking...

June 21, 2021 Coronavirus

It all sounds so simple: to hasten the end of the pandemic globally, suspend intellectual property protections on Covid-19 vaccines to allow swift production of low-cost copies the world over. The Biden administration has bought into exactly that strategy at the World Trade Organization. But some simple ideas are also simplistic, and this one is dangerously so. Waiving patent rights for Covid-19 vaccines will actually slow their availability in the developing world, thereby prolonging the pandemic. The production of these breakthrough Covid-19...

June 16, 2021 Innovation

Reforms to the U.S. drug pricing environment are required, but to improve patients’ health outcomes, reforms must be grounded in a comprehensive understanding of the current drug pricing system. Otherwise, policymakers will make things worse, not better. Unfortunately, a March 2021 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) fails to live up to this goal. The title of the report, U.S. Prices for Selected Brand Drugs Were Higher on Average than Prices in Australia, Canada, and France, appears to confirm the narrative that U.S. patients...

June 16, 2021 Coronavirus-Alternate2

PRI's Dr. Henry Miller talks about the misleading claims about national vaccine rates versus progress by each state, and how the vaccine rates breakdown by region with the nationally-syndicated Lars Larson Show. Dr. Miller also discusses statements about vaccines by President Joe Biden during his run for the presidency and it's impact on current vaccination rates. Lars Larson National Podcast · Lars Larson National Podcast 06-15-21...

June 10, 2021 Coronavirus - Alternate

The COVID-19 vaccines have been nothing short of miraculous. Life is returning to normal in many places. But ACSH advisor Dr. Henry Miller argues that we will still need effective medical treatments for COVID-19. COVID-19 vaccines are the miracle that has significantly suppressed the pandemic in a number of countries, including the United States, where the current seven-day moving averages of cases and deaths are at levels not seen since March of 2020.  With continued aggressive vaccination, we can further suppress the numbers – getting us...

June 10, 2021 Blog, Industry Trends

Dr. Henry Miller, physician, molecular biologist, and senior fellow with PRI, talks to the Lars Larson Show about the new Alzheimer drug approved by the FDA. Dr. Miller gives the history of Alzheimer drug approvals and the controversy around it. Larson and Dr. Miller talk about the approval process used by the FDA, costs, and how additional testing for the drug would work. Dr. Miller's segment begins at the 47-minute mark.  Lars Larson National Podcast · Lars Larson National Podcast 06-08-21...

June 3, 2021 Blog, Coronavirus-Alternate2, Innovation

On April 13th, citing "an abundance of caution," after the appearance of a few rare blood clots in the brain (cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, or CVST) following administration of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, the FDA announced a "pause" in its administration. Regulators reversed course just ten days later, after confirming that the incidence of that adverse reaction was, indeed, extremely low, and that the benefits of receiving the vaccine overwhelmingly outweighed the risks. The decision to pause was precipitated...

May 28, 2021 Policy Proposals

A very bad regulation is coming. Here's the short of it. In 2016 Congress passed the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Law. That law directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to promulgate regulations for the mandatory labeling of "bioengineered" (or "genetically engineered") foods for human consumption. Consequently, the USDA issued the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standards (NBFDS) in December 2018. Although those regulations became effective in February 2019, the USDA allowed food manufacturers (the regulated entities) until Jan. 1, 2022, to come into full...

May 28, 2021 Coronavirus-Alternate2

The Food and Drug Administration recently approved two over-the-counter, at-home rapid coronavirus tests. Harvard epidemiologist Dr. Michael Mina called this development “a major advance.” He’s right. But the FDA should have reached this milestone months ago. Regulators dawdled, and thousands of people died. Public health experts have been calling for at-home COVID-19 tests since the early days of the pandemic. With more testing, more people would know they had the virus, stayed home, and slowed the virus’s spread. For much of the past...

May 28, 2021 Blog, Innovation

This week, lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced bills that could preserve access to telehealth for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries beyond the pandemic. The House measure would allow Medicare beneficiaries to continue receiving “audio-only” remote care — that is, by phone. The Senate bill would direct the federal government to come up with a list of telehealth services that state Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program should cover. This sustained enthusiasm for telehealth is great for patients. State and federal officials relaxed...

May 19, 2021 Coronavirus

Dr. Henry Miller, M.S., M.D. joined the nationally-syndicated Lars Larson Show to talk about funding at the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health. Dr. Miller and Larson go over some of the questionable funding sources that NIH and NSC have committed to research and science. Lars Larson National Podcast · Lars Larson National Podcast 05-18-21...

May 19, 2021 Industry Trends

There's dissension within House Democrats' ranks. Last week, no fewer than 10 House Democrats urged Speaker Nancy Pelosi to abandon H.R. 3, as the legislation is known, in favor of a more bipartisan approach that can "preserve our invaluable innovation ecosystem." Slapping new taxes and price controls on prescription drugs, as H.R. 3 would, has always been a bad idea — one that is guaranteed to undermine research into new drugs and vaccines. But it's borderline reckless to do so right as...

May 18, 2021 Price and Costs

Proponents from states such as California, Oregon, and Connecticut all claim that “pay for delay” legislation is necessary to rein in the pharmaceutical industry’s anti-competitive practices. If implemented, the bills will impose a high cost on patients by raising the costs of medicines and delaying generic entry into the market. Pay for delay tactics refers to the practice of patented drug manufacturers paying off generic manufacturers for the sole purpose of delaying the launch of competitive products. When successful, such tactics...

May 16, 2021 Industry Trends

How the New Price Transparency Rules are Affecting Stakeholders May 13, 2021 Deborah Abrams Kaplan Although the hospital price transparency final rule took effect in January, it will take time for it to get its sea legs, whether that means 100% hospital compliance, inspiring patients to use it for their own healthcare decisions or for hospitals to reevaluate their pricing based on their competition. Eventually, though, “I think it will open up the market and, hopefully, reduce the cost of healthcare,” says Sally...

May 16, 2021 Coronavirus-Alternate2

Medicare for All just won’t die. More than 100 House Democrats have signed onto new legislation that, if passed, would outlaw all private insurance and put all Americans on a federally run insurance plan within two years. The bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., says Medicare for All is the “solution” to the covid-19 crisis and will improve access to quality care in the long run. Health care is a human right, she says. She could hardly be more wrong. A...

May 16, 2021 Innovation, Issues, Price and Costs

[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column width="2/3"][vc_column_text css=".vc_custom_1621192674245{padding-right: 40px !important;}"]DOWNLOAD THE PDF In October 2019, the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the Pacific Research Institute released its second study documenting the savings potential enabled by biosimilars. Biosimilars are medicines manufactured in, or derived from, biological sources that are developed to be similar to FDA-approved reference products. Biosimilars are approved to compete in nine biologic drug classes in the U.S., and are available in seven of these drug...

May 14, 2021 Industry Trends

Last year was the first year in which physicians working in private practice accounted for fewer than half of all practicing doctors, according to a new new report from the American Medical Association. Many of these formerly independent doctors went to work for big healthcare systems. That finding may sound obscure. Why should patients care whether a doctor draws his or her paycheck from a hospital or a private practice he or she owns? But the corporatization of medicine could be bad news for...

May 13, 2021 Coronavirus - Alternate

President Biden recently backed a World Trade Organization proposal to waive intellectual property protections on COVID-19 vaccines and therapies — a move the Trump administration rejected just a few months ago. The White House’s decision is a catastrophe. The waiver will do nothing to increase access to vaccines. It will, however, undermine the system of intellectual property protections that made these breakthrough vaccines possible. Patients today and well into the future will suffer, as investors think twice about funding risky efforts to research and develop therapies...

May 12, 2021 Industry Trends

By Henry Miller, M.S., M.D., and Kathleen Hefferon, Ph.D The controversy over genetically engineered organisms (sometimes called “genetically modified organisms,” or “GMOs”) is genuine, not faux — but only because of uninformed, exaggerated concerns about the most recent techniques’ “newness.” What is faux and disingenuous are the arguments put forth by genetic engineering’s opponents. Humans have been modifying the DNA of our food for thousands of years (even though we didn’t know that DNA was mediating the changes until the 20th century). We call...