Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
FDA Warns 3 Baby Formula Makers Over Inadequate Safety Procedures
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration sent warning letters to three baby formula manufacturers on Wednesday, saying that they had not set up adequate safety procedures to prevent any chance of contamination.聽The agency said in letters to ByHeart, Reckitt/Mead Johnson Nutrition and Perrigo Wisconsin that the formula makers didn鈥檛 do enough to determine the underlying causes when some of their formula tested positive for cronobacter in instances that came after the height of last year鈥檚 shortages. (Peterson, 8/30)
In other pharmaceutical industry news 鈥
Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Rosalind Brewer has stepped down as head of the company and as a member of its board of directors, the company said Friday. Brewer and the board "mutually agreed" on Brewer's exit, which took effect Thursday, the company said in a news release. Walgreens聽said Brewer will advise the company while it conducts a search for a permanent CEO聽and receive a $375,000 monthly consulting fee through February. (Hudson, 9/1)
Drugs and medical devices rarely come from the nonprofit world. There are more than 2,600 for-profit pharmaceutical companies in the United States, but only three nonprofits have products on the American market. One of them is Medicines360, which in 2015 became the first nonprofit to introduce a medical device 鈥 an IUD. The genesis of the device came from an anonymous foundation that saw one of the most effective and reversible birth-control methods, the hormonal IUD, was too expensive for most women. Even insured women could be billed copays of up to $1,000. (Motoyama, 9/1)
麻豆女优 Health News: NPR And 麻豆女优 Health News Share The Story Of Two Health Heroes Who Helped Stop Smallpox聽
麻豆女优 Health News鈥 editor-at-large for public health, C茅line Gounder, and Regina G. Barber, host of NPR鈥檚 podcast 鈥淪hortwave,鈥 team up to discuss the work of two public health workers who went to great lengths 鈥 sometimes traveling by speedboat to remote islands 鈥 to root out smallpox in Bangladesh. Hear the full episode of 鈥淪peedboat Epidemiology鈥 here 鈥 it鈥檚 Episode 4 of the latest season of the 鈥淓pidemic鈥 podcast, 鈥淓radicating Smallpox.鈥 (9/5)