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Here are six reasons drugs in the United States cost so much:1. In the United States, negotiations with drug makers are split among tens of thousands of health plans, resulting in far less bargaining muscle for the buyers. Other nations also conduct careful analyses of how much additional benefit a new drug presents over drugs already on the market — and at what cost. If the cost is too high and the benefit too small, those countries are more willing to say no to a new drug. Health policy analysts say that is a start, but much broader negotiating authority is needed to make a dent in drug prices overall.

Persons: ”, Stacie Dusetzina Organizations: Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Pharmaceutical, Industry Locations: United States

☆ Is It Time to Wear a Mask Again?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Dani Blum | More About Dani Blum | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As new Covid variants gain traction, reinfections become more common and cases climb in certain areas, a few schools and businesses are reinstating mask requirements. Here’s a refresher on where, when and how to mask. When should you wear a mask inside? Everyone’s risk tolerance varies, Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said. “Certainly every time you add another person to the room, particularly people who are within three to five feet of you, that increases your chance of getting infected, exponentially,” Dr. Pekosz added.

Persons: reinfections, ”, Andrew Pekosz, William Schaffner, Pekosz Organizations: Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

☆ Insight: What happens when a $2 million gene therapy is not enough
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-12 | by ( Deena Beasley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +13 min

Their experience raises broader questions around other high-cost gene therapies coming to market, sometimes after accelerated regulatory approvals, drug pricing experts said. Gene therapies work by replacing genes – the body's blueprint for its development. The gene Zolgensma delivers instructs the body to make a protein vital for muscle control. If gene therapies do fall short, it becomes harder to justify prices that researchers have argued are already poor value. More recently, the first hemophilia gene therapy approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was priced by CSL Behring at $3.5 million; 26 more gene therapies are in late-stage development, according to IQVIA.

Persons: Elizabeth Kutschke, Ben, Zolgensma, Ben Kutschke, neurologists, Sitra Tauscher, Wisniewski, Ben's, Roger Hajjar, Brigham Gene, Kutschke, Vasant Narasimhan, Stacie Dusetzina, Roche's, Biogen, Roche, Maha Radhakrishnan, Steven Pearson, It's, Sree Chaguturu, Amanda Cook, Weston, Jackson, Cook, Elizabeth, Jerry Mendell, Russell Butterfield, –, Biogen's, Mendell, UMR, Spinraza, Eric Cox, Caroline Humer, Sara Ledwith Organizations: Reuters, U.S, Novartis, IQVIA Institute, Human Data, Novartis Gene Therapies, Mass, Cell Therapy, U.S . Food, Drug Administration, CSL Behring, CSL, Nashville's Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Clinical, Economic, CVS Health, Aetna, SMA, Nationwide Children's Hospital, University of Utah Health, Children's, UnitedHealth, Thomson Locations: Oak Park, Berwyn , Illinois, Swiss, U.S, Lebanon , Virginia, United States, Columbus , Ohio, Russia, Kazakhstan, Chicago

☆ Economists warn of costs if Medicare covers new obesity drugs
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Nancy Lapid | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

March 11 (Reuters) - The cost of expanding U.S. Medicare prescription drug coverage to pay for expensive, new obesity medications could be catastrophic, health economists warned in a report published on Saturday. Big-selling diabetes drugs have been repurposed as obesity treatments after demonstrating weight loss of more than 20% in clinical trials. While they are far more effective than older drugs, lifetime use might be required to keep lost weight off. But should the bipartisan The Treat and Reduce Obesity Act get reintroduced and passed by Congress, Medicare will be compelled to cover drugs for weight loss. The Medicare health program covers more than 60 million Americans, most over age 65.

☆ RSV, flu and colds: How to tell when your child is too sick for school
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Madeline Holcombe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Almost all children catch RSV at some point before they turn 2, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Here’s how to assess when to keep your child home from school and when to visit the pediatrician, according to experts. Ideally, public health professionals would like it if no child showing symptoms were sent to school or day care, where they could potentially spread infections Schaffner said. Again, here is where schools may have different policies and it becomes important to check with written information, a school administrator or school nurse, Wen said. “Parents should know that treating RSV and other respiratory infections is the bread and butter of pediatricians and emergency physicians,” Wen said.

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