| | | | | | | Presented By CVS Health | | | | Axios Vitals | | By Tina Reed · Jan 06, 2023 | | 😎 Happy Friday, Vitals readers. Today's newsletter is 1,084 words or a 4-minute read. | | | | | | 1 big thing: A banner year for drugs brings cost concerns |  | | | Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios | | | | A series of pricey breakthrough prescription drugs are poised to shake up the market this year — including an Alzheimer's treatment that could be approved today by the FDA, Axios' Caitlin Owens writes. Why it matters: Though the treatments offer hope to patients with hard-to-treat conditions like Alzheimer's or sickle cell disease, or who struggle with obesity, their potentially eye-popping prices are sure to create dilemmas for insurers, government programs and patients themselves. The big picture: The approvals could fuel already-contentious debates around affordability and equity, giving ammunition both to those who say innovation doesn't come cheap and others who contend advances are meaningless if patients can't access them. - Although some of the drugs could be transformative for patients, "they will create choices that need to be made," said Rena Conti, a professor at Boston University's Questrom School of Business.
Driving the news: The FDA is expected to today decide whether to approve Eisai and Biogen's lecanemab, a treatment for Alzheimer's disease, setting into motion another round of debate over how much the drug should cost and whether Medicare should cover it. - It would become the second FDA-approved Alzheimer's treatment targeting amyloid plaques that are believed to contribute to the development of the disease, but isn't likely to cause the controversy that Biogen's Aduhelm did when it was approved in 2021.
- Biogen initially priced Aduhelm at $56,000 a year, drawing outrage from critics and presenting big questions about how Medicare could absorb the large spending spike.
- If lecanemab is approved, experts will be closely watching both its list price and whether the FDA limits its use to subgroups of Alzheimer's patients.
- A cost-effective price would be between $8,500 and $20,600 a year, the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review said last month.
Go deeper. |     | | | | | | 2. VillageMD completes Summit deal |  | | | Photo: Robert Alexander/Getty Images | | | | The Walgreens-backed primary care group VillageMD completed its $8.9 billion acquisition of Summit Health, officials announced during Walgreens' first quarter earnings report on Thursday. Why it matters: The deal makes VillageMD one of the largest independent physician practices in the country with a workforce of more than 20,000 people and more than 680 locations, officials said. It's a key move in Walgreens' strategy to grow its consumer-centric health care delivery business, Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Roz Brewer told analysts on Thursday. - Walgreens, which is a majority stakeholder of value-based care Village MD, invested $3.5 billion in the deal, Brewer said. Evernorth, the health services business of Cigna Corp., was also an investor.
What she's saying: "This highly strategic transaction expands VillageMDs addressable market with primary care, multispecialty and urgent care and reinforces our approach across the care continuum. We see meaningful synergy potential over time." - Already, VillageMD has 200 locations adjacent to Walgreens stores and it had a total of 393 clinics.
- "We recognize the critical importance of scale in value-based care delivery and density in attractive markets," she said.
What to watch: This is part of a bigger buying spree for WBA, which completed its acquisition of specialty pharmacy company Shields Health Solutions in December, | | | | | | | | 3. Few school districts return to masking |  | | | Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios | | | | A handful of public school districts are mandating masks as kids and staff return from holiday breaks, but an Axios review of cities across the country found those orders to be far from the norm. The big picture: There's little apparent appetite to return to pandemic strategies like masking or social distancing, even in the face of a tripledemic. And the sentiment cuts across red and blue states. - Even administrators in solidly progressive enclaves like Boston, San Francisco and Seattle are encouraging, but not outright requiring, masks. Washington D.C. public schools also haven't adopted a mandate.
Between the lines: It's a far cry from a year ago, when about half of the country's 53 million children were compulsorily masked in school, per The Atlantic. - Critics have said such policies hindered learning and weighed heaviest on children with cognitive problems and speech and hearing issues. And school masking quickly became a centerpiece of the broader political fight over the pandemic response.
What they found: School administrators in Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey, are requiring students and teachers to wear masks through Jan. 13 "as a way of protecting students and employees after holiday gatherings," WPVI reported. - Boston's public schools, as well as districts in surrounding communities, are "strongly encouraging" students and staff to wear masks through Jan. 13, Boston.com reported.
- Meanwhile, spokespeople from school districts told Axios' reporters in Atlanta, Denver, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Columbus that they have no plans to return to masking.
| | | | | | | | A message from CVS Health | | From the simplest of health needs to more complex care | | |  | | | | Whether your health needs are simple or more complex, CVS Health is here to connect you to high-quality, convenient and affordable care. In your community, on your phone or in your home, CVS Health delivers care however you need it. Learn more about how we're making healthier happen together. | | | | | | 4. Antibiotic development gets $9M boost |  | | | Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios | | | | Everyone agrees that the world needs new antibiotics, as the number of drug-resistant infections continues to soar. But there's little agreement on how to finance their development, and the situation is deteriorating, Axios' Dan Primack writes. What to know: Antibiotics are a bad business, at least based on a current pharma model that's predicated on volume sales. - Among ideas floated by policy makers to finance the development of new antibiotics includes a federally funded "Netflix model," the New York Times reported.
What they're saying: "Over the two years I've been here, the situation has become more dire," says Henry Skinner, a former Pfizer and Novartis executive who now leads AMR Action Fund, a $1.2 billion venture capital effort formed by Big Pharma to invest in new antibiotics developers. Driving the news: AMR Action Fund announced a new deal this week, plugging around $9 million into BioVersys, a Swiss company in the clinic with a product aimed at certain lung and bloodstream infections that kill up to 100,000 people per year. - It also has early-stage programs, including one aimed at multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.
- Skinner says the new money should be enough to get the company's lead product to Phase 3 trials, at which point he's "confident" that BioVersys would be able to secure adequate funding (including from AMR's deep reserves).
The big picture: This is of increasing urgency as antimicrobial-resistant infections are on the rise, particularly in the wake of the COVID pandemic, Axios' Eileen Drage O'Reilly wrote recently. Read the rest. | | | | | | | | 5. Dog of the week |  | | | Jake. Photo: Clare Christiansen | | | | Meet Jake. He's a 9-month-old Cavapoo puppy who lives with his humans in St. Louis. - "Let's just say Jake has grown accustomed to a certain lifestyle and appreciates the finer things in life," says one of his humans, Clare Christiansen of Real Chemistry.
- That apparently includes grilled salmon, long naps on his mom's softest throw blankets, ice cubes in his water bowl, and barking at squirrels. What a life, Jake.
| | | | | | | | A message from CVS Health | | Healthier happens together | | | | | | | | No matter who you are, where you are or what you need to take care of your health, CVS Health is there for you. What you need to know: CVS Health connects you to high-quality, convenient and affordable care — whether it's in your community, on your phone or in your home. Learn more. | | | | Did someone forward this email to you? Here's how to sign up. Thanks for reading, and thanks to senior editor Adriel Bettelheim and senior copy editor Bryan McBournie for the edits. |  | | Your personal policy analyst is here. | | | | | | Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters.
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