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West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said he will oppose OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy plan, arguing that his state, one of the hardest hit by the opioid epidemic, would get shorted in settlement money. “I remain vigorously opposed to a proposed allocation formula that would distribute settlement funds largely based on a state or local government’s population – not intensity of the problem,” Morrisey said Tuesday. (7/14)

Maine’s governor plans to host the a virtual summit about the opioid crisis this week. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said she has scheduled the third annual Governor’s Opioid Response Summit for Thursday. She said the event is designed to assemble health care providers, policy experts, law enforcement officials and members of the public to work together on the opioid crisis. (7/14)

Researchers at the University of California-Davis are trying to use the venom from tarantulas to develop a pain medication to help curb the opioid epidemic, reports CBS Sacramento. "Nature offers such a wide diversity of proteins that basically, for us, are building blocks of future medicines," Dr. Vladimir Yarov-Yarovoy of UC Davis Health says. He's one of the lead researchers in a 20-person team. (7/14)

Jameson Rybak tried to quit using opioids nearly a dozen times within five years. Each time, he'd wait out the vomiting, sweating and chills from withdrawal in his bedroom. It was difficult to watch, says his mother, Suzanne Rybak, though she admired his persistence. On March 11, 2020, however, Suzanne grew worried. Jameson, 30 years old at the time, was slipping in and out of consciousness and saying he couldn't move his hands. (Pattani, 7/14)

In updates on the new Alzheimer's drug —

At least half-a-dozen private health insurers in some of the nation’s largest states are balking at covering Biogen’s controversial drug for Alzheimer’s disease, saying it is an experimental and unproven treatment despite being approved by the federal government one month ago. Six affiliates of Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Florida, New York, Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania say in newly adopted policies they will not cover the Cambridge biotech’s drug, Aduhelm, because they consider it “investigational” or “experimental” or because “a clinical benefit has not been established.” Aduhelm, which is priced at $56,000 a year, is intended to slow cognitive decline in patients with early Alzheimer’s symptoms, regardless of their age. (Saltzman, 7/13)

A pricey new Alzheimer’s drug already mired in controversy could cost Medicaid anywhere from $720 million to nearly $2.2 billion each year depending on the number of patients treated, according to a new analysis. The medication, which is called Aduhelm and carries a $56,000 price tag, is generating concern over its potential impact on the overall health care system. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, for instance, is about to begin a process for determining whether Medicare will establish a national coverage policy for the drug, which is sold by Biogen (BIIB) and won regulatory approval last month. (Silverman, 7/13)

Though a rival’s Alzheimer’s drug reached the market first, the CEO of Eli Lilly spoke confidently Tuesday about its amyloid-clearing product’s potential to take on Biogen’s recently launched Aduhelm. Speaking at STAT’s Breakthrough Science Summit, CEO David Ricks said Lilly last month asked the Food and Drug Administration to expedite approval of its drug donanemab for “business reasons, competitive reasons, but more importantly, patient reasons.” (Cooney, 7/13)

In other pharmaceutical and biotech news —

Premier and Honeywell will team up to increase the supply of exam gloves made in the U.S., the organizations announced Tuesday. The group purchasing and consulting organization and the manufacturing conglomerate initially will produce 750 million nitrile gloves over a year. While the supply of most personal protective equipment has replenished since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, medical-grade exam gloves are still running short amidst global raw material scarcity, port closures and delays, and higher-than-average demand. (Kacik, 7/13)

A federal judge dropped allegations that three drug makers engaged in antitrust practices by scheming to overcharge for insulin, but the companies will continue to face racketeering claims in a lawsuit brought by pharmaceutical wholesalers. In the lawsuit, the insulin makers — Eli Lilly (LLY), Sanofi  (SNY), and Novo Nordisk (NVO) — were accused of inflating prices by paying kickbacks in the form of rebates and various administrative fees to pharmacy benefit managers in exchange for favorable placement on formularies. These are lists of medicines for which coverage is provided by health insurers that hire PBMs to negotiate on their behalf. (Silverman, 7/13)

A company formed to aggregate and sell de-identified data on millions of American patients has attracted a trio of new hospital partners, adding providers in Dallas and Washington, D.C., to a national network that now includes 17 health systems. Truveta, helmed by former Microsoft executive Terry Myerson, has signed on D.C.-based MedStar Health and the Dallas-based health systems Baylor Scott & White and Texas Health Resources. The hospitals now participating in the company’s efforts account for about 15% of care delivered across 40 U.S. states. (Ross, 7/13)

KHN: Dying Patients With Rare Diseases Struggle To Get Experimental Therapies 
At 15, Autumn Fuernisen is dying. She was diagnosed at age 11 with a rare degenerative brain disorder that has no known cure or way to slow it down: juvenile-onset Huntington’s disease. “There’s lots of things that she used to be able to do just fine,” said her mom, Londen Tabor, who lives with her daughter in Gillette, Wyoming. Autumn’s speech has become slurred and her cognitive skills slower. She needs help with many tasks, such as writing, showering and dressing, and while she can walk, her balance is off. Autumn has been turned down for clinical trials because she is too young. (Bennett, 7/14)