Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
23andMe Lays Off 40% Of Its Employees, Ends Therapy Programs
Genetic testing firm 23andMe said on Monday it is reducing about 40%, or 200 employees, from its workforce and discontinuing further development of all its therapies as part of a restructuring program. 鈥淲e are taking these difficult but necessary actions as we restructure 23andMe and focus on the long-term success of our core consumer business and research partnerships,鈥 said CEO Anne Wojcicki. The company said it is evaluating strategic alternatives, including licensing agreements and asset sales, for its therapies in development. (11/11)
23andMe, the genetics startup that has repeatedly captured the public imagination and then faced nearly fatal business challenges, announced Monday that it would halt its efforts to develop new medicines and lay off 40% of its workforce, focusing instead on selling genetic tests to consumers and using the resulting data for research. (Herper, 11/11)
On cancer research 鈥
AstraZeneca said Tuesday it has had to resubmit a closely watched medicine for U.S. approval in a different form of lung cancer, a step that will delay the drug鈥檚 arrival on the market and that will add to questions about how widely it could be used.聽(Joseph, 11/12)
Pfizer鈥檚 promising research on a treatment for a dangerous cancer-related condition is also helping prove out the value of wearables in clinical trials. (Aguilar, 11/12)
On Halloween morning of 2020, Lourdes Monje, 25 at the time, felt a strange bump on their left breast. An agonizing series of scans and biopsies revealed cancer that had spread to spots on the lung. That devastating diagnosis narrowed Monje's vision of any future to a small, dark point. But at the next appointment, Monje's oncologist explained that even an advanced diagnosis is not a death sentence, thanks to revolutionary changes in cancer care. (Noguchi, 11/11)
On research animals 鈥
Employees at a South Carolina compound that breeds monkeys for medical research have recaptured five more animals that escaped last week from an enclosure that wasn鈥檛 fully locked. As of Monday afternoon, 30 of the 43 monkeys that made it outside the Alpha Genesis facility in Yemassee are back in the company鈥檚 custody unharmed, police said in a statement. (11/11)
The animal protection group Stop Animal Exploitation Now, which for years has filed federal complaints against the facility, has called on the USDA to prosecute Alpha Genesis as a repeat violator of its duty to keep the animals secure. In one way, this is a story about what looks like a corporate failure. But there is another way to understand this situation, both legally and morally. What if these intrepid macaques, who the lab has said pose no threat to the public and carry no infectious diseases, have a legal claim to freedom? (Fernandez and Marceau, 11/11)
