late-breaking news from your medical association volume XXII / no. 2 June 2015
local Stanford Health Care Acquires ValleyCare Stanford Health Care recently acquired ValleyCare Health System located in Pleasanton, Dublin, and Livermore, which gives Stanford a stronger foothold in the East Bay. It also gives a firmer financial foundation to ValleyCare, which has been floundering recently as an independent system in a region dominated by Stanford, UCSF, Kaiser, and Sutter Health. This affiliation comes as UCSF has also been making East Bay moves, including an alliance with John Muir and its 1,000doctor medical network. UCSF also affiliated with the former Children’s Hospital in Oakland in 2014, later renaming it UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital-Oakland.
Theranos Markets its Blood Test in Arizona Palo Alto-based Theranos is offering its simple, inexpensive blood test at 41 Walgreen’s stores in the Phoenix area. The company is looking at expanding in Arizona to more Walgreen’s stores. Theranos also helped push legislation in Arizona allowing consumers to get tested without a doctor’s order. This issue has presented obstacles to Theranos in other states, including California. In Arizona a customer can walk into a Walgreen’s and pay $2.70 to get a glucose test or a cholesterol test without a doctor’s order.
Gilead Wins Approval of First Cancer Drug Gilead Sciences has recently won approval of its first cancer drug and it is working on a hepatitis B treatment, as well as new regimens to rid the body of HIV reservoirs. Latent reservoirs are the cells of the body where HIV is able to hide. These cellular reservoirs are located throughout the body, including the brain, lymphoid tissue, bone marrow, and genital tract.
local (continued) CURES Database—You Must Register by January 1, 2016 California physicians who prescribe, order, administer, furnish, or dispense Schedule II, III, or IV controlled substances must be registered to access CURES. The MBC has announced that it will help physicians register by verifying your identify in place of having your application notarized. For instructions go to: www.mbc.ca.gov/Licensees/Prescribing/cures_notice.pdf.
state Broad coalition of Doctors, Nurses, Hospitals Launch $10M Statewide Campaign to Fully Fund Medi-Cal “We Care for California” calls on the state to fully fund Medi-Cal in order to bring payments to providers in line with the rates paid by Medicare. The campaign includes English and Spanish TV, radio, direct mail, outdoor billboards, and online calls for action. The TV ads are running in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Sacramento. A selection of TV advertisements can be viewed on Medi-CalMatters.org. The coalition is seeking passage of two bills, SB 243 and AB 366, which would fully fund Medi-Cal.
CDPH Fines Three Bay Area Hospitals The California Department of Public Health has fined three Bay Area hospitals for violations of state standards regarding patient safety. CPMC and Marin General Hospital were identified for failing to follow proper procedures during surgeries, in both cases with foreign objects left inside patients after surgery resulting in complications and the need for additional medical procedures. Regulators also fined Seton Medical Center for not following patient safety regulations by failing to have proper procedures in place following a fall. In other areas, the CDPH also fined twelve other hospitals that received fines totaling $775,000. The other hospitals were Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, Glenn Medical Center in Willows, Mercy Medical Center in Merced, three hospitals in San Diego County, and two in San Bernardino County.
UCLA Center for Health Policy Research Releases Ten-year Trends in the Health of Young Children Ages 0-5 This policy brief covers the years 2003-2012, a period in which public health efforts for children focused on childhood obesity and improved nutrition, access to low-cost fee for services, and the expansion of children’s health insurance programs. The policy report data shows improvement in health insurance coverage and access to dental services for low-income children over the 10-year period; however, the percentage of children who were overweight for their age remained unchanged among those households with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The report is available at http://healthpolicy.ucla.edu/publications/documents/PDF/2015/child_health_trends_FINAL.pdf.
national House Committee Approves Bill to Speed New Drugs to Market The House Energy and Commerce Committee has approved a bill to speed new drugs to the market. The bill, known as the 21st Century Cures Act, would set aside $10 billion over five years for the NIH and about half a billion for the FDA, to help carry out this legislation and spur biomedical innovation. The Act calls for the FDA to streamline its review of drugs for additional uses, consider more flexible forms of clinical trials, and incorporate patient experience into its decision-making. There is bipartisan support for this measure, putting it on track for a vote in the House in June. 2
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national (continued) CVS Pays $10.4B in Cash for Drug Distributor Omnicare CVS Health will pay more than $10 billion for pharmaceutical distributor Omnicare in a deal primed to feed its fastgrowing specialty drug business and tap a lucrative and growing elder care market. The drugstore’s purchase gives it entrance to nursing homes and expands specialty medicine distribution. The acquisition will dramatically add to CVS’s revenue next year, and integrating the companies also will lead to savings in purchasing and other operations.
New Twist on Concierge Care A Massachusetts physician is practicing under a model called direct primary care. For a flat monthly fee, the physician offers patients one-hour, same-day appointments, with no waiting time. The doctor is available 24/7. in person, at the office, at the patient’s home, or via text, email or Skpye.
Prostate Cancer Testing Drops Off Fewer American men are receiving prostate cancer screening in the wake of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) conclusion that the test does men more harm than good. To update the 2002 and 2008 USPSTF evidence, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recently conducted its own study, with PSA screening results showing small or no reduction in prostate cancer-specific mortality. The studies also showed that the test is associated with harms related to subsequent evaluation and treatments, some of which are unnecessary.
The State of Health Care Quality Report Each year the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) publishes The State of Health Care Quality Report, which documents performance trends over time, tracks variation in care, and recommends quality improvement to the U.S. healthcare system. NCQA’s 2014 report summarizes the data from more than 1,000 health plans relating to clinical quality, customer experience, and resource use. The report places a spotlight on specific measure performance, provides updates on overall HEDIS performance improvements, and details what makes the 2014 report the most significant report to date. A copy of the report is available at www.ncqa.org/ReportCards/HealthPlans/ StateofHealthCareQuality.aspx.
Elderly Patients, Beware—No Heart Benefits for Alcohol as the Elderly Age A new American Heart Association report states that drinking two or more alcoholic beverages daily may damage the heart of elderly people, according to research in the American Heart Association journal, Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging. The study correlated weekly alcohol consumption among 4,466 people—average age 76—to the size, structure and motion of various parts of the heart. Among men drinking more than 14 alcoholic beverages weekly (heavy drinking) was linked with enlargement of the wall of the heart’s main pumping chamber. Among women, moderate drinkers had small reductions in heart function. Women appear more susceptible than men to the cardiotoxic effects of alcohol, which might potentially contribute to a higher risk of alcoholic cardiomyopathy, for any given level of alcohol intake. Previous research has shown that light to moderate drinking may protect against some cardiovascular disease, while heavy drinking has been linked with a higher risk of cardiomyopathy. The study was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Five-Year Cancer Survival Rate Trends in U.S. Two-thirds of Americans diagnosed with cancer live at least five years now, compared to just over half in 1990. There has been a 12% increase in survival rates over this period for liver cancer patients, and 18% for prostate cancer. The cancers with the lowest five-year survival percentage are CRC colon, Lung NSC, and Pancreatic, all at 4 percent.
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biotech Recent Biotech Acquisitions with Bay Area Connections Though leveling off, biotech deal-making is still booming after a record year of IPOs in 2014. In addition to Roche, other major acquisitions include Pfizer’s payment of $68 billion for Wyeth, and Merck’s payment of $41 billion for Schering Plough. In February Bristol-Meyers-Squibb acquired San Carlos-based Flexus Biosciences, an IDO/TDO discovery program which will expand B-M-S’s scientific advances in immuno-oncology and expand its pipeline with an approach to enhancing immune responses to cancer. In January San-Rafael-based BioMarin Pharmaceuticals acquired Netherlands-based Prosensa Holdings, a developer of Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug, for $800 million. New Jersey-based Celgene acquired Stanford-based Quanticel Pharmaceuticals in April for $485 million. Celgene is committed to expanding a sustainable pipeline of life-enhancing medical innovation to benefit cancer patients. Saratoga-based non-profit Myelin Repair Foundation has announced that, in conjunction with NIH, patients will be enrolled in a first-of-its-kind, early-stage clinical trial of the experimental MS drug, Guanabenz. If the clinical trials prove successful, Guanabenz could become a low-cost treatment for MS patients, potentially in combination with drugs that modulate the immune system. Roche acquired InterMune last September for $8.3 billion. Brisbane-based InterMune, a start-up focused on lung disease, is Roche’s largest acquisition since it purchased the remaining 40% of Genentech it did not already own for $47 billion in 2009.. Last fall, J&J acquired South San Francisco-based Alios BioPharma, a company that is developing novel antiviral therapies for the treatment of respiratory diseases, for $1.75 million. 4
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