Innovation
CZI announces biohub to build novel cell tech
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative on Wednesday announced a commitment to spend $250 million over 10 years to establish a new "biohub" in New York City focused on building a new class of cellular machines that can surveil the body and snuff out disease, STAT's Jason Mast reported exclusively.
CZI's namesakes, philanthropist Priscilla Chan and Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg also appeared at the STAT Summit yesterday, where they spelled out their vision for finding — and funding — potential breakthroughs in medicine.
"We love awesome things and what science and biology are on the precipice of are a lot of awesome things," Chan told the audience.
Fundraising
CVS Ventures piles on to back community-based health startup
CVS Health Ventures is the latest to back Waymark, a Bay Area tech startup predicting Medicaid patients' needs and hospitalization risks and then dispatching a network of community health workers, pharmacists, therapists and others to help them. (In Tuesday's newsletter, my Health Tech co-author Mohana Ravindranath noted UnitedHealthcare's white paper, which concluded that this model reduced non-emergent emergency department visits)
A new investor, CVS joined previous backers Lux Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and New Enterprise Associates in the $42 million round, which comprises $20 million in equity capital and $20 million in credit. Co-founder Rajaie Batniji told Mohana the startup may access the credit if desired before raising further equity financing later.
Waymark contracts with Medicaid managed care organizations to cut costs, and keeps a share of the savings. It's already partnered with CVS to guide care for Aetna Medicaid beneficiaries in Virginia, so the investment could portend further expansion.
A handful of others have similar models, including Alphabet spinout Cityblock, touts its proprietary risk prediction and partnerships with local health services as competitive advantages. As states grapple with Medicaid redetermination, we'll keep a close eye on the venture-backed companies trying to eke out profits by offering to help insurers and providers save money. Whether they're successful largely depends on the sophistication of their risk predictions, local partnerships with community health workers, and their ability to attribute the savings to their models.
Research
Data suggests possible benefit of telehealth prescribing for buprenorphine
As the Drug Enforcement Agency mulls long-term regulations on prescribing controlled substances over telehealth, mounting evidence suggests flexibilities adopted during the pandemic could carry positive benefits to people seeking medication assisted treatment for opioid use disorder.
According to a new analysis of Medicaid data on 91,000 people in 2020, "enrollees who initiated buprenorphine treatment via telemedicine had higher odds of retention in treatment but no change in the odds of opioid-related nonfatal overdose." While it would be nice to see that such retention contributed to improved downstream outcomes, the data seems to hint at the potential benefits of increasing access.
The DEA recently extended the pandemic telehealth flexibilities through 2024. Proponents argue that given the magnitude of the opioid crisis, restricting digital access to potentially life-saving care over concerns about abuse will do more harm than good. Additional data about good outcomes, without bad consequences, could help them make the case.
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