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Gilead Sciences agreed to pay $202 million to settle allegations of paying kickbacks to doctors in exchange for prescribing several of its HIV medicines, the latest example of a controversial practice that has come back to haunt numerous drugmakers over the years. (Silverman, 4/29)

When President Trump signed an executive order this month to try to reduce drug prices, the pharmaceutical industry scored a big win. Within 90 days, the order said, Trump’s staff should put together a report “re-evaluating the role of middlemen,” who have been the target of one of the most sweeping and expensive lobbying campaigns in recent years. (Dawsey, Peterson and Severns, 4/30)

Hims & Hers Health Inc. soared after Novo Nordisk A/S said it would sell its popular weight-loss drug Wegovy for a steeply reduced price on several telehealth platforms. The strategy comes as rival Eli Lilly & Co. is working with telehealth firms to distribute lower-cost vials of its own obesity medication, Zepbound, as competition heats up. Lilly and Novo have struggled to get widespread insurance coverage for their obesity medications and at first viewed telehealth companies, which started out by selling copycat versions of their drugs, as competitors. (Muller, 4/29)

The FDA approved prademagene zamikeracel (Zevaskyn) for treating adults and children with the blistering wounds caused by recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB), Abeona Therapeutics announced on Tuesday. Patients with the debilitating dermatologic condition are born with COL7A1 mutations in both gene copies, affecting the ability to produce functional type VII collagen and resulting in extremely fragile skin that is subject to chronic wounds that can remain open for years. (Ingram, 4/29)

File this under “So close, yet so far.” After several years of struggling with regulatory hurdles to win approval for its rare disease drug, Stealth BioTherapeutics had expected the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to respond on Tuesday to its marketing application. (Silverman, 4/29)

Nearly 12% of Americans still smoke cigarettes, the leading cause of preventable death nationwide. Yet there are only two medications authorized by the Food and Drug Administration to help them quit — the more effective of which, varenicline, can come with unsavory side effects like nausea that make people less likely to stick with treatment. (Todd, 4/30)

Baystate Health plans to lay off 43 staff members in early May in its latest round of position eliminations as part of a six-year, $1.2 billion investment plan. The system has reduced its workforce by a total of 7% since late last year, according to a Tuesday news release. It previously cut 98 corporate roles in February and 134 leadership positions in November. In both previous rounds of reductions, some positions were vacant. The number of vacant positions in the latest cuts was not disclosed. (DeSilva, 4/29)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: The Patient Expected A Free Checkup. The Bill Was $1,430

Carmen Aiken of Chicago made an appointment for an annual physical exam in July 2023, planning to get checked out and complete some blood work. The appointment was at a family medicine practice run by University of Illinois Health. Aiken said the doctor recommended they undergo a Pap smear, which they hadn’t had in more than a year, and testing for sexually transmitted infections. Aiken, who works for a nonprofit and uses the pronoun they, said they were also encouraged to get the HPV vaccine. (Liss and Sausser, 4/30)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Fast Action From Bystanders Can Improve Cardiac Arrest Survival. Many Don’t Know What To Do

When a woman collapsed on an escalator at the Buffalo, New York, airport last June, Phil Clough knew what to do. He and another bystander put her flat on her back and checked her pulse (faint) and her breathing (shallow and erratic). Then she stopped breathing altogether. Realizing that she might be having a cardiac arrest, Clough immediately started doing chest compressions, pressing hard and quickly on the center of her chest, while others nearby called 911 and ran to get an automated external defibrillator. (Andrews, 4/30)