The U.S. scientific community is slowly chipping away at the lack of diversity seen in medical research, but it still has a long way to go, experts tell Axios.
Why it matters: "We are not a nation of white men," LA BioMed's David Meyer says. Because race and ethnicity sometimes play a role in how people develop diseases or react to medications, it's important in this age of "personalized medicine" to expand research to include people of color, the elderly, poorer communities, and those in the LGBTQ community.
The White House said Thursday that it wants Congress to pass legislation protecting patients from receiving surprise medical bills after they visit the emergency room or unknowingly receive care from providers not covered by their insurance.
Between the lines: While the White House declined to say how it wanted billing disputes between insurers and providers resolved, it said that it's not enthusiastic about an arbitration process, which some industry groups favor.
McKesson dropped an interesting nugget in its earnings call yesterday: The drug distributor expects to spend $150 million defending itself in state and national opioids lawsuits in its 2021 fiscal year, which starts next March, up from more than $100 million this year.
Between the lines: $150 million is a rounding error for McKesson, which handled $214 billion of revenue last year. But the company is essentially breaking even these days, and those legal costs could go up by billions of dollars if a settlement is reached.
The Trump administration's newly finalized rules requiring drugmakers to include prices in their TV ads could spark a flurry of lawsuits — first to challenge the rules, and then to enforce them.
Between the lines: If the rule survives the legal challenges that may be coming its way, there are still plenty of questions about whether it'll actually help lower drug prices.
2020 Democratic candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a new campaign proposal Wednesday that would allot $100 billion over the next decade to fight the opioid crisis.
Why it matters: Warren's cash-heavy idea, which would be funded by her proposed wealth tax on America's top earning individuals and companies, aligns with what experts told Congress last year — no amount of money used to combat the opioid crisis is too much.
The Trump administration finalized a rule Wednesday that will require pharmaceutical companies to post the list prices of their drugs in TV commercials.
Why it matters: The drug industry may sue to block the rule, and many people are skeptical that publishing prices in ads would help patients or successfully shame drugmakers into lowering their prices. But the rule is another sign of bipartisan pressure against the industry and a step toward more transparency.
A new gene therapy made by Novartis is about to come to market with a potential price tag of $2 million, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Details: The drug, Zolgensma, has the potential to cure spinal muscular atrophy, an inherited disease that often kills babies before their second birthday.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, one of the most progressive district attorneys in the country, told "Axios on HBO" that he is "very close" to implementing a policy that would relax the penalties for drug possession laws.
Why it matters: This would be one of the first policies of its kind in the U.S. If it leads to more cities adopting similar policies addressing drug possession offenses with treatment instead of incarceration, it could fundamentally change the nation's approach to addiction and the war on drugs.
People with major medical illnesses are having serious problems paying for the health care they need — a crisis that is flying under the radar while attention is focused on hot policy issues like the Affordable Care Act and "Medicare for All."
The big picture: A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Los Angeles Times shows that a strikingly large share of people with serious medical conditions are struggling to pay their medical bills, often wreaking havoc with their family budgets and causing them to cut back on care.
