Author's posts
Predicting A Covid-19 Outbreak With Wastewater Analysis
Wastewater sampling provides a relatively inexpensive, yet comprehensive overview of the actual viral load in a community, a week or two earlier than existing PCR tests done on individuals.
Success Story During The Covid-19 Pandemic? Professional Sports, So Far
While professional athletes are young and fearless, most appear to follow coronavirus protocols. Infection rates have been quite low. Despite some hiccups, thus far professional sports have been relatively successful at managing their resumption of pla…
Adding Sickle Cell Disease To FDA’s Priority Review Voucher List Of Neglected Tropical Diseases
Sickle cell disease lags behind other neglected diseases in terms of R&D. Adding sickle cell disease to the FDA’s priority review voucher list of neglected tropical diseases may incentivize drug companies to increase their investment in R&D.
Biden/Harris Likely To Favor Medicare For More And Public Option
While Medicare for More and the public option do not reform the current patchwork system wholesale, they may address several issues that voters appear to care about, including improving equitable access to health insurance and lowering patient out-of-p…
CMS Proposes Changes To Medicaid Best Price Rule: A Potential Boost To Value-Based Contracting
The proposed changes to the Medicaid best price rule put forward by CMS may give drug manufacturers and payers regulatory flexibility to encourage more use of value-based contracting arrangements for expensive, but promising therapies.
Klobuchar Asks GAO To Examine Prescription Drug Rebate Traps
Rebate traps constitute ways to “entrench the dominance of [branded] products for as long as possible by limiting the ability of alternative drugs to compete,” thereby restricting patient access to lower cost generic drugs and biosimilars, as well as o…
Seroprevalence Studies May Underestimate Immunity To The Coronavirus
Dr. Rajkumar is convinced that seroprevalence studies greatly underestimate the true level of immunity of a given population to the novel coronavirus. Antibody production upon exposure to the virus, existing antibodies, and T cells all contribute to im…
Dutch Officials’ Continued Reluctance To Embrace The Mask To Prevent Spread Of Coronavirus
Dutch public health officials are unbending with respect to what they consider to be lack of scientific evidence on the efficacy of non-medical masks in limiting the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Trump’s Executive Orders On Drug Pricing Contain Caveats And Limitations
There are provisos that may prevent implementation of the the two executive orders with the greatest potential impact on pricing and patient out-of-pocket costs: International reference pricing for Medicare Part B drugs, and the rebate pass-through to …
The Complex, Global Evolution Of Coronavirus Mask Rules
Wearing masks won’t be a cure-all. But, if done in concert with other measures, mask-wearing may help curb the upward trend in new infections. And for this there appears to be a growing consensus based on guidance issued by most public health agencies …
