Latest news with #InnovationRx
Forbes
14-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
InnovationRx: Trump's Drug Price Order Is More Bluster Than Substance
In this week's edition of InnovationRx, we look at Trump's drug pricing executive order, how the cofounder of Hims became a billionaire, the economic costs of cutting NIH spending, and more. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here. President Trump signed an executive order on Monday aimed at getting pharmaceutical companies to lower their prices 'by 30% to 80%.' But the proposal is a lot weaker than industry analysts expected. The action makes no mention of tools such as Medicare price negotiation under the Inflation Reduction Act or a Medicare pilot allowed by the Affordable Care Act, both of which were contemplated scenarios. Both of those were Democratic initiatives. Instead, the order gives the Health and Human Services Department 30 days to determine targeted 'most favored nation' prices–that is, prices paid for the same drug in other developed countries around the globe. Those targets are then to be communicated to pharmaceutical companies. If those companies don't actively attempt to meet those targets, the HHS Secretary is to embark on rulemaking to enforce them, a process that could take months or years–and likely would be fought in the courts, as such rules require Congress to pass legislation. Stephen J. Ubl, CEO of industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, decried the order in a statement, saying that 'to lower costs for Americans, we need to address the real reasons U.S. prices are higher: foreign countries not paying their fair share and middlemen driving up prices for U.S. patients.' The Incubate Coalition, comprising venture capitalists involved in the sector, issued a similar statement, saying that 'Importing foreign price controls is a step backward for American innovation, and American patients.' In Congress, Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., offered to introduce legislation that would give Most Favored Nation pricing teeth and called on President Trump to support it. Republicans seem less inclined to support such a move, with Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, among others seeming to prefer support for bipartisan legislative proposals to rein in Pharmacy Benefit Managers, the gatekeepers on what drugs are included on approved drug lists known as formularies. © 2025 Bloomberg Finance LP Andrew Dudum, cofounder of San Francisco-based online pharmacy Hims & Hers, a seller of wellness products for men and women–including hair loss and erectile dysfunction pills–is now a billionaire after strong quarterly earnings and a recent deal to sell a popular weight loss drug sent the company's stock soaring. On April 29, Hims & Hers announced that it had struck a partnership with Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk to sell its popular weight loss drug Wegovy through its online pharmacy, making it one of just three telehealth providers to do so. The company's stock rocketed up 83% since the announcement (through May 13), reversing a dramatic tumble that followed a February decision by the FDA to stop telehealth companies like Hims & Hers from making compound versions of the drug. Companies including Hims & Hers were allowed to manufacture and sell the drugs after a sudden boom in their popularity led to shortages. The recent stock rally boosted the net worth of 36-year-old Dudum, a serial entrepreneur who helped launch the company in 2017 and has run it ever since as CEO, to $1.4 billion, according to Forbes estimates. On Tuesday, the company reported that it had issued $1 billion worth of convertible notes. Read more here. A report from Senate Democrats found that the Trump Administration effectively cut $2.7 billion worth of NIH research grants through March of this year, including a 31% cut to cancer research. These cuts are having ripple effects throughout the industry. The cuts 'are creating a climate of deep uncertainty. We are increasingly hearing from customers that the combination of actual cuts and looming risks is making them hesitant to initiate new projects or invest in capital purchases,' Serge Saxanov, CEO of 10x Genomics, whose company produces products used by genomics researchers, told investors on an earnings call last week. Saxonov also criticized the Administration's current approach to the NIH, stating that recent federal actions are 'severely undermining these enterprises and run the risk of fundamentally dismantling their ability to support research. And that would be a tragedy.' Virtual chronic care company Omada Health filed to go public in what's expected to be something of a bellwether for the stagnant IPO market for digital health companies. In its filing, Omada–which was founded in 2012 and counts Andreessen Horowitz among its backers–reported $170 million in revenue for 2024, up 38% from 2023. However, the company is not yet profitable, reporting a net loss of $47 million last year compared with $68 million for 2023. Omada's IPO filing follows that of virtual physical therapy startup Hinge Health, which filed its regulatory paperwork in March. Hinge Health said on Tuesday that it was targeting a nearly $2.6 billion valuation (it priced its shares between $28 and $32)--a huge decline from the $6.2 billion valuation it reached in 2021 at its last VC funding round. Plus: ChatGPT maker OpenAI unveiled a new healthcare initiative this week, called HealthBench. Working with 262 doctors around the world, the company hopes to better measure capabilities of AI systems for health in order to evaluate their effectiveness. Trump picked wellness influencer Casey Means to be the next surgeon general. She and her brother Calley are right-wing favorites and promoters of the so-called Make America Healthy Again movement led by RFK Jr. Vitriol against her from more traditional MAGA types underscores a split within Trump's base. If confirmed, the proponent of raw milk who dropped out of her surgical residency program, would be the least experienced person to fill that role. Plus: Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling, the hospital system's first leader who's been in that role for 23 years, announced that he will step down in October. John D'Angelo, currently executive vice president of the group's central region who began his career there 25 years ago as an emergency medicine physician, will replace him. Northwell is one of the nation's largest health systems, spanning 28 hospitals in New York and Connecticut. In the latest shakeup at UnitedHealth Group, CEO Andrew Witty is stepping down, citing 'personal reasons,' and will be replaced by former longtime CEO Stephen J. Hemsley. In a memo to employees, Hemsley said he was 'optimistic' about the company's future. When ProPublica's David Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer, he set out to understand why a single pill of Revlimid cost the same as a new iPhone. This is what he found. Bill Gates reshaped global health through his foundation. Now as the Trump administration slashes foreign aid, he plans to spend more than $200 billion on health and human development before winding down the foundation in 2045. In a clinical trial that pit two blockbuster obesity drugs head-to-head, Lilly's Zepbound beat Novo Nordisk's Wegovy. The study, funded by Lilly and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that patients on Zepbound lost 50 pounds over 72 weeks versus 33 pounds on Wegovy. The finding is consistent with another study published last fall that also found Zepbound produced more weight loss. Billy Evans, the partner of imprisoned Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, is starting a blood-testing company of his own. A Congressional Budget Office analysis found that the the current budget reconciliation bill could cause more than 13 million people to become uninsured over the next decade than would otherwise have been the case. A federal court ruled that the patent board should re-evaluate whether Nobel Prize winners Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier are owners of CRISPR technology. The high-profile disputes dates to 2014 when a researcher at the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard was granted key U.S. patent rights.
Forbes
30-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
InnovationRx: A Patent Fight Over The World's Top-Selling Drug
In this week's edition of InnovationRx, we look at a patent fight over the world's top-selling drug, breakthroughs from the American Association for Cancer Research, Verily's Parkinson's dataset, the relationship between microplastics and heart disease, and more. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here. Robert Davis, chief executive officer of Merck & Co. Merck's Keytruda is the world's top-selling drug, bringing in nearly $30 billion in sales last year. The drug, which is used to treat lung cancer, melanoma and certain other cancers, has historically been given by intravenous infusion, but Merck is gearing up to launch an injectable version that would be easier on patients. That formulation is currently pending FDA approval (the agency has a target of September 23 to decide) and, if approved, Merck has said it plans to launch on October 1. San Diego-based Halozyme is fighting that plan–and last week filed suit in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, alleging that the injectable version of Keytruda infringes on its patents. Halozyme, which is publicly traded with a market cap of $7.5 billion, partners with pharmaceutical companies to make injectable versions of important medicines, and said that it had expected Merck to sign a licensing deal in order to use its hyaluronidase technology. It's now seeking an injunction to block Merck's planned commercialization of the drug. Merck has said that the suit is 'meritless.' The court battle comes at a critical time for Keytruda, which is facing the approaching expiration of some key patents starting in 2028 that could potentially open the way for less costly versions known as biosimilars. Merck's efforts to change the blockbuster drug's delivery system could potentially both increase its sales and extend its patent runway. On Tuesday, Merck said that it would spend $1 billion on a new factory in Delaware that would include biologic drugs, the new injectable version of Keytruda among them. More than 21,000 people gathered over the past few days at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research in Chicago. Companies presented innovative research, suggesting hope for patients against some of the world's deadliest diseases. Here are a few highlights from the meeting: Diagnostic Help From AI: Artificial intelligence is proving to be helpful in better diagnosing cancer. In one new academic paper, an AI model was able to predict whether a cancer patient is at risk of developing wasting disease better than conventional methods. Other research found that an AI model was able to classify sarcomas (cancers that attack soft tissues) from images alone, a task that normally requires complex chemical analysis. And in a third study, AI was used to help diagnose nonmelanoma skin cancers. Promise For Boehringer Ingleheim's Lung Cancer Drug: Just under 5% of patients with non-small cell lung cancer have a mutation in a gene called HER2 that results in much more aggressive tumors that are harder to treat, because the mutations closely resemble other proteins in the body, which can cause toxic side effects. Pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim presented data from a clinical trial of its drug zongertinib, which binds tightly to HER2 proteins. The study found a durable response to the drug in patients with lower rates of adverse side effects than comparable treatments. Promising Immunotherapies: An off-the-shelf cell therapy developed by Sentio Biosciences caused complete remission in blood cancer patients with fewer side effects than a typical CAR-T treatment in a small phase 1 clinical trial. Plus, a study from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute found that the use of immunotherapy both before and after surgery improved outcomes for patients with head and neck cancer. One Shot For HPV: A large-scale clinical study conducted by the National Cancer Institute suggests that Gardisil, a vaccine that protects against HPV, is just as effective at preventing cervical cancer after only one dose as the current schedule of two doses currently prescribed in the United States. Sudip Parikh, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which publishes the Science family of journals, testified to the Senate Appropriations Committee about the state of biomedical research in the United States on Wednesday. In his testimony, Parikh criticized the execution of cuts to jobs and grants to scientific agencies by the Trump administration. 'Too many game-changing decisions are being made by individuals with little to no understanding of the complex ecosystem,' he testified. He also criticized proposed budget cuts to NIH, stating that they would lead to fewer treatments for cancer, dementia and other maladies and cost America its leadership in the field. 'Unfortunately, the implementation and execution of these efforts have caused both collateral and targeted damage to the biomedical research enterprise,' he stated in his prepared comments. 'And — if rumored proposed budgets for 2026 are realized – will hand leadership of biomedical research to China and, even more devastatingly, dismantle the engine of hope and prosperity for millions of Americans.' A new study by a team of economists at American University's Institute for Macroeconomic and Policy Analysis found that a 25% reduction in research funding would lower government revenues 4.3% in the long term, while a 75% cut would lower it 11.3%–more than since the Great Depression. Plus: The FDA approved Abeone Therapeutics' gene therapy Zevaskyn, which is used to treat a rare genetic condition that causes extremely fragile skin, leading to blistering and other wounds over the body. Verily, Alphabet's health and AI company, received a $14.7 million grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation to build a large molecular dataset of Parkinson's patients. The dataset is designed to help researchers better understand the relationship between genetics, immunology and metabolism, which could accelerate new treatments for the debilitating neurological disease. As many as 1 million people in the U.S. have Parkinson's disease with nearly 90,000 new cases diagnosed annually. Diagnostics company Predicta Biosciences announced the commercial launch of its first test, GenoPredicta. The test uses whole genome sequencing of blood or bone marrow from patients to detect genetic variations that can diagnose and guide treatment for multiple myeloma (a blood cancer). The test is intended as a next generation of diagnostics, enabling more accurate diagnosis than the current standard, fluorescence in situ hybridization, without requiring the painful intrusion of a bone marrow biopsy. The company's test can also identify genetic mutations that indicate a patient won't respond to a particular medicine. 'There's really a lot of benefits both from the blood-based side and from the whole genome sequencing side, which gives us just a much more complete view of the alterations in that patient's cancer than the current standard does,' cofounder Irene Ghobrial, who's also a professor at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, told Forbes. A new study published this week suggests that exposure to phthalates, a class of chemicals used to make plastic used in household items, may be linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths from heart disease each year. The study focused on a specific phthalate called DEHP, which can prompt inflammation in the heart's arteries, leading to disease. The study estimates exposure to DEHP caused more than 350,000 deaths from heart disease–about 13% of all heart disease deaths–in 2018 alone. Novo Nordisk will sell low-cost versions of its popular weight-loss drug Wegovy through telehealth companies Hims, Ro and LifeMd. The three companies had been selling compounded versions of the drug, which the FDA permitted when there was a shortage, but that shortage was declared ended last month. Compounding pharmacies have filed suit to keep being able to produce those versions. (Disclosure: Forbes Media owns a small stake in Ro.) Plus: IVF automation company Overture Life raised $21 million from Overwater Ventures, GV and Khosla Ventures bringing its total investment to $57 million at an undisclosed valuation. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company uses software and robotics to bring down the costs of fertility procedures. As Trump pushes coal, a federal program to screen coal miners for deadly black lung disease has been shuttered. The shingles vaccine appears to lower dementia risk, according to several recent studies. Measles continues to spread in the United States, with over 900 cases nationwide, putting the country at a tipping point for the return of endemic measles for the first time since it was declared eradicated 25 years ago, new research warns. Damage from a gut bacteria may help explain why colon cancers have been rising in people under age 55. Chinese biotech Akeso won approval in China for its drug challenging Merck's Keytruda. Summit Therapeutics has a deal with Akeso for the drug's development in the U.S. Trump's cuts to science funding mean that mice, rats and even monkeys used in research face being euthanized. Health system operating margins dropped below 1% in March, according to a report from Strata.
Forbes
23-04-2025
- Health
- Forbes
InnovationRx: Measles Continues To Spread—And Misinformation Is Making It Worse
In this week's edition of InnovationRx, we look at the spread of both measles and disinformation about it, the DOJ going after medical journals, HHS policy changes on Covid vaccines and more. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly. More than 624 cases of measles have been confirmed in Texas alone this year (through Tuesday), with around 800 confirmed cases across the country. Twenty-five states so far have seen cases of the disease this year, and the outbreak in Texas has been genetically linked to spread in both New Mexico and Kansas. But measles isn't the only thing spreading: misinformation about the disease is, too, according to a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Republicans were particularly susceptible to this misinformation. For example, the survey found that while two-thirds of Democratic parents knew that measles was on the rise this year, only one-third of Republican parents did. The misinformation spread poses a challenge to public health efforts. There is no approved treatment for measles, making vaccination the best approach to controlling the disease. However, the survey found that 21% of Americans falsely believe that such vaccines cause autism, 16% believe the measles shot is more dangerous than the disease and 23% believe vitamin A can prevent measles infections, even as children in Texas have been hospitalized with vitamin A toxicity. Many of these beliefs have been espoused by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In Kansas, 37 cases of measles have been reported since mid-March, and in an update on the disease yesterday, Governor Laura Kelly urged parents to vaccinate their children and blamed the anti-vaccination movement for exacerbating the problem. 'Talk to your doctor. Ask questions. Get the facts and then make a plan,' she told Kansans. Getty Images In the Trump administration, even academic journals of medical research are being scrutinized for being too woke. On April 14, the peer-reviewed medical journal CHEST, which focuses on respiratory diseases and sleep medicine, received a letter from Edward Martin, Jr., the U.S. Attorney General for the District of Columbia, probing whether the publication is 'partisan,' and asking a series of questions about its acceptance of 'competing viewpoints.'Trade publication MedPage Today reported last Friday that at least three journals had received the letters. It did not identify the other two publications. On Wednesday, the New England Journal of Medicine confirmed to Forbes that it had also received such a letter. 'We support the editorial independence of medical journals and their First Amendment rights to free expression,' Dr. Eric Rubin, NEJM's editor-in-chief, said by email. Read more here. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is weighing the idea of pulling a recommendation for children to get Covid-19 vaccines, reports Politico. If he does that could be a problem for stopping the disease's impact on children. Long Covid has turned out to be more widespread among children than previously thought, leading to chronic health problems, while Covid-19 has a higher mortality rate among children than other respiratory diseases such as influenza. The debate over whether children should receive the Covid-19 vaccine comes on the heels of stop-work orders on federal contracts with at least three biotech companies that are developing next-generation Covid vaccines. Plus: Genentech has entered into an agreement with Repertorie Immune Medicines to develop treatments for autoimmune disease. Repertoire will receive an upfront payment of $35 million and up to $730 million in additional milestone payments plus royalties. Global communications firm Havas made a strategic investment in Ostro, an AI company for life sciences founded by Forbes 30 Under 30 alums Chase Feiger and Ahmed Elsayyad, as part of its previously announced $450 million investment in AI. Before this deal (the financial details of which were not disclosed), Ostro had raised a total of $56 million at a $250 million valuation. China's restrictions on rare earths aren't only a problem for electric vehicles–they also pose a big risk for medical equipment like MRI machines. These critical minerals go into permanent magnets that are used to operate motors, so they're commonplace in diagnostic machines. Rare earths are used in other ways in healthcare, too. For example, gadolinium is used to produce a contrast fluid that is injected into patients before they receive a scan to help doctors more easily diagnose brain tumors. Plus: Biolinq, which is developing biosensors for precision health, announced a $100 million series C funding round. In Pennsylvania, Crozer Health hospitals are closing. Thousands of employees who work there received emails Monday morning that the system was shutting down despite months of efforts by parent company, Prospect Medical Holdings, to find a buyer. Meanwhile, the Providence health system, which controls 51 hospitals across the western United States, is freezing non-clinical hiring due to 'economic headwinds.' Nourish, a telehealth platform that connects patients to registered dieticians, announced today that it has raised a $70 million series B round at an undisclosed valuation, bringing its total investment to $115 million. The company, founded by Forbes 30 under 30 alums Aidan Dewar, Stephanie Liu and Sam Perkins, aims to provide personalized nutrition support for patients suffering from chronic disease–for example, providing diet plans for those taking GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic. The company plans to use the new capital to develop new products and expand its network of dieticians. A new approach to throttling what biologists call 'jumping genes' might help treat diseases related to aging. Ireland has become a global hub of pharmaceutical manufacturing–now it's bracing for the impact of the Trump Administration's proposed tariffs. The Trump Administration has frozen billions of dollars of healthcare payouts pending manual reviews, creating huge backlogs of payments. New tariffs imposed by the federal government threaten to significantly impact the bottom lines of hospitals across the country. The Supreme Court appeared divided on the provision of the Affordable Care Act that provides free preventive care. The FDA suspended its quality control program for milk and other dairy products following workforce cuts. New research suggests that the vintage antibiotic streptomycin might serve as a treatment for metastatic cancer. The NIH is cutting off funding to the Women's Health Initiative, one of the federal government's biggest research programs into women's health.
Forbes
16-04-2025
- Health
- Forbes
Potential Medicaid Cuts Threaten Maternal Healthcare
In this week's edition of InnovationRx, we look at the impact of Medicaid cuts, a $400 million obesity bet, a study of bias in clinical AI, Amgen's AI hire from Nike, and more. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here. Looming Medicaid cuts could hurt maternal health. The House of Representatives and the Senate both agreed to a budget framework over the weekend. The framework calls for spending cuts to pay for tax cuts that disproportionately go to the rich and funds to prevent rising deficits while also increasing spending for Trump's deportations and other policy priorities. It's widely expected that Medicaid, which provides health insurance to people with low incomes, will be significantly impacted–up to $880 billion over the next 10 years, about a 29% cut. Some of those cuts involve potential changes to Medicaid work requirements, which could remove insurance coverage from as many as five million people. That's likely to mean less revenue for hospitals, particularly in rural areas, where about 19% of patients are on Medicaid. Family caregivers and long-term care for elderly Americans are also likely to be hit. Another area where Medicaid cuts threaten harm is maternal healthcare. The combination of Medicaid budget cuts, as well as those made to health services by DOGE, could particularly harm the health of women and children. Medicaid pays for more than 40% of all births in the country and covers more than one in four women aged 15 to 49. Andrea Ippolito, Founder of Simplifed, a startup that provides telehealth support for pregnancy and postpartum care, told Forbes that cuts to Medicaid would not only immediately impact the health of women and children, but also cost the healthcare system more in the long run. 'If we don't serve them, that's just going to lead to folks showing up in the ER, to hospitalizations. It's going to cause significant strain on the system and those costs will increase.' Ippolito also noted that many maternal health outcomes have gotten worse over the past decade, including mood disorders and gestational diabetes, and that cuts to Medicaid may exacerbate this. 'One of the major drivers of this is because many folks aren't attending that six-week postpartum visit or in general accessing postpartum care,' she said. 'We need to improve access to care to improve health outcomes and ultimately be able to contain costs.' Kailera CEO Ron Renaud In the summer of 2023, Dr. Amir Zamani, a 42-year-old Johns Hopkins–trained physician who is a partner on Bain Capital's life sciences team in Boston, was obsessed with obesity drugs. Novo Nordisk's Ozempic was taking America by storm, and Eli Lilly was nearing FDA approval for Zepbound. He'd spent months digging through reams of data from dozens of companies when he struck gold in an unexpected place: the portfolio of Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, one of China's biggest pharmaceutical companies. 'It was like, 'Wait a second, they're ahead of everybody else who's not Novo or Lilly,' ' Zamani told Forbes. Results from Phase II clinical trials in China ultimately showed 59% of participants lost 20% or more of their body weight on an eight-milligram dose of the drug in 36 weeks, and side effects were mild. If those results hold, the drug could be especially useful for severely obese patients who need to lose more weight than they can on currently available medications. It used to be that Chinese drug development was largely about creating 'me too' drugs for the local market. But over the past 10 years, with Beijing focused on building a native biotech industry, U.S.-trained Chinese scientists returned home and started innovating instead of mimicking. American outfits have spent $8.1 billion on upfront payments for Chinese drugs between 2020 and 2024, compared to $536 million in the preceding five years, according to biopharma deals database DealForma. Zamani partnered with Atlas Venture and RTW Investments, and the three firms invested $400 million to spin up Kailera Therapeutics in October, launching with a license for the four Hengrui therapies and a plan to shepherd them to market. To run Kailera, the investors hired an all-star: Ron Renaud, a 56-year-old former biotech stock analyst with a nearly unequaled track record of building biotech startups and then selling them for big profits. Read more here. Last week, the FDA approved the combination of Opdivo and Yervoy, developed by Bristol Myers Squibb, for both liver cancers and colorectal cancers that can't be treated surgically or have spread to other parts of the body. The two drugs work together to block different mechanisms that prevent tumors from being recognized by the immune system, which helps the body fight them off. In clinical trials, the combination therapy reduced disease progression or death in colorectal cancer patients by 79% compared to chemotherapy. In liver cancer, the risk of death was reduced by 21% compared to the current standard of care. When Dr. David Reese, Amgen's first chief technology officer, set about hiring a head of artificial intelligence last year, he looked at people who'd worked in consumer products, finance and other areas. He ended up finding one in shoes. Last August, he brought on Sean Bruich, who'd spent the past 11 years of his career working at Nike, as senior vice president for AI and data, a move that might seem almost laughably incongruous. Like both its peer Big Pharma companies and smaller biotech startups, Thousand Oaks, California-based Amgen is counting on AI to both speed up the process of drug discovery and make its operations more efficient. But most of the best data scientists aren't working in healthcare–at least not yet. 'Most of the talent [in AI] lies outside biopharma, not within it,' Reese told Forbes. Medtech company Science Corp., founded by Neuralink cofounder Max Hodak, has raised a $104 million investment round led by Khosla Ventures, according to Bloomberg. The company is developing a variety of technologies related to the brain, including brain-computer interfaces. It also has developed a retinal implant for treating blindness related to diseases such as macular degeneration that helped restore visual acuity in a recent clinical trial of 38 patients. Medical large language models make decisions based on socioeconomic factors, not just medical necessity, according to a new study published in Nature Medicine. The study's researchers presented identical clinical symptoms to AI models, but supplied it each time with different demographic information about the patient. They found that the AI models suggested better care for white, wealthy patients–and more basic care for all others. The researchers also found that the models suggested mental health assessments for Black or LGBTQ patients much more often than was clinically indicated. The model's care recommendations were 'not supported by clinical reasoning or guidelines, suggesting that they may reflect model-driven bias, which could eventually lead to health disparities rather than acceptable clinical variation,' the researchers wrote. Attovia Therapeutics raised $90 million led by Deep Track Capital to do early-stage clinical trials for its treatments for chronic pruritis (itchiness) and atopic dermatitis. The deal, which puts total funding at $255 million, is the San Carlos, California-based company's third in just two years. Before the latest round, venture capital database Pitchbook pegged its valuation at $280 million; Attovia declined to comment. Founder Tao Fu, a one-time consultant at McKinsey, was previously president of Zai Lab, a $3.4 billion (market cap) biopharma company based in the U.S. and China. Inside federal health agencies, workers confront chaos and questions about how the NIH and other parts of HHS can continue to function. Mehmet Oz has laid out some of his vision for his tenure as head of Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services. The deep cuts to HHS threaten the integrity of the agency's information technology and datasets. Ksenia Petrova worked in a Harvard lab to reverse aging after fleeing her native Russia. ICE jailed her eight weeks for a minor customs declaration infraction. Closure of CDC's hepatitis lab leaves the country with no good way to measure the scale of the disease and imperils responses to it. Researchers at the University of California, Davis developed an LSD analogue that has the potential to treat schizophrenia without causing hallucinations. The FDA warns that fake Ozempic is in the U.S. supply chain after seizing hundreds of counterfeit injections. Will Trump's retaliatory cuts on Harvard affect Boston's university-affiliaited hospitals? The government says no, and the head of Mass General Brigham believes they shouldn't.
Forbes
09-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
InnovationRx: Trump Vows That ‘Major' Pharma Tariffs Are Coming
In this week's edition of InnovationRx, we look at the impact of tariffs on healthcare costs, pioneers of treating MS, AI for clinical decision-making, and more. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here. Inside an Indian pharmaceutical manufacturing plant. Last week, Trump made good on a core campaign promise to enact sweeping tariffs, slapping a baseline of 10% tax on imports from every country, with many others singled out for harsher rates, with China now set at 108%. While pharmaceuticals were spared at first, on Tuesday President Trump said that 'a major tariff' on pharmaceuticals would be announced soon. It's now only a question of when and how hard they will hit. When they do, one of the biggest losers would likely be generic drug manufacturers. Since they account for about 90% of all prescriptions in the United States, a huge segment of Americans who rely on them. About 47% of all generics prescribed in the U.S. are made in India, which is currently facing a 26% tariff. For some generics, costs could become excruciatingly high. ING analyst Diederik Stadig estimated that a 24-week course of generic cancer medication could see cost increases of as much as $10,000 under a 25% tariff. Mark Cuban, whose Cost-Plus Drug Company manufactures and sells generic drugs, such as penicillin imported from Portugal, told Forbes that any costs elevated by tariffs will absolutely be passed through to patients. 'With only a 15 [percent] markup, we can't absorb any additional costs,' he said. Meanwhile, despite months of aggressive lobbying, medical device makers did not get a carveout. And with perhaps 40% of all devices manufactured overseas, they're likely headed for a heavy hit that will ripple out through device manufacturers, hospitals, insurers and the millions of people whose health relies on them. Mexico, where the tariff rate has been set at 25%, is a major hub for manufacturing, while other devices are made in Europe, where the rate is now 20%. That means items like pacemakers, insulin pumps and hearing aids are likely to get more expensive. These increases could be significant for healthcare systems around the country. As Erik Wexler, CEO of Providence, a non-profit Catholic health system based near Seattle that includes 51 hospitals, said: 'Potential cuts to Medicaid on top of tariffs will cripple health systems across the country, which could create a national emergency in terms of access to health care, especially for those who are most vulnerable.' Alberto Ascherio and Stephen L. Hauser, 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences winners Stephen Hauser and Alberto Ascherio, two pioneers in the study of multiple sclerosis, received one of the $3 million Breakthrough Prizes in Life Sciences last week. The money for the awards comes from the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, founded by Yuri and Julia Milner, as well as from Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, and Priscilla Chan; Google cofounder Sergey Brin and 23andMe cofounder Anne Wojcicki. MS is a progressive autoimmune disease where the body's own immune system attacks myelin, the protective cover that surrounds nerve fibers, disrupting interactions between the brain and the rest of the body. This can result in patients eventually losing the ability to walk or move. Hauser, a neurologist at the University of California San Francisco, was recognized for his key discovery for MS. For decades, the prevailing wisdom was that rogue T-cells were responsible for the damage seen in MS patients. Hauser became skeptical of the conventional wisdom, when he realized that the animal models being used to study MS didn't line up with what he observed in his own MS patients, he told Forbes. He and his colleagues eventually determined that white blood cells called B cells were the actual culprit. That insight has led to new therapies that have revolutionized treatment for the disease. Hauser credits the National Institutes of Health for enabling his work. 'It's the NIH that was the anchor for the science that has moved us in one generation from a time when a person with MS would be completely disabled within 15 years to today, where a person whose MS is just beginning can anticipate a life free from disability,' he said. Ascherio, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, received the prize for his discovery that MS is fundamentally caused by infection with Epstein-Barr virus–which is also the cause of mononucleosis. Proving this required an extraordinary rigorous study tracking the records of more than 10 million military servicemembers over time. Ascherio told Forbes he hopes this finding could eventually lead to an antiviral or even a vaccine against multiple sclerosis. 'A vaccine to prevent infections is challenging,' he said. 'But if you could prevent infection, you could prevent MS.' A new study found that using Fertilo, a stem cell-based fertility treatment developed by biotech company Gameto, in conjunction with in vitro maturation (IVM) more than doubled the rate of successful pregnancies compared to conventional IVM methods. The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, involved 40 patients and tested both safety and efficacy of the treatment. The company is currently enrolling patients into a phase 3 clinical study of Fertilo. In December, Gameto (founded by Forbes 30 Under 30 alumna Dina Radenkovic) announced the first birth of a baby conceived using the Fertilo treatment. Can artificial intelligence rival doctors' decision-making? A new study by researchers at Cedars-Sinai, Tel Aviv University and digital health startup K Health says yes—at least in certain circumstances. The new study, published in the peer-reviewed Annals of Internal Medicine, looked at the recommendations of K Health's AI chatbot compared to those of the real-life doctors for patients who came to virtual urgent-care appointments with acute respiratory, urinary, vaginal, eye or dental symptoms. It found that the AI matched doctors' clinical decisions in two-thirds of cases, and offered higher-quality care overall for the remaining one-third. Additive manufacturing firm 3D Systems said that it had 3D-printed the first high-performance plastic facial implant at the point of care. The custom medical device was used during a successful surgery in mid-March at University Hospital Basel in Switzerland. A new report from RAND highlights the precariousness of emergency departments in hospitals across the country. The report finds that ERs are increasingly dealing with more complex–and acute–medical issues. Meanwhile, payments are falling and sometimes even being withheld. The study's authors recommend more funding to support emergency departments and greater investments in primary care to help reduce crowding. Plus: RFK Jr. plans to tell the CDC to stop recommending fluoride, which strengthens teeth and reduces cavities, in drinking water across the country. Recently launched biotech firm RayThera raised $110 million led by Foresite Capital and OrbiMed Advisors to develop small-molecule therapies in immunology. The San Diego-based company will use the funds to move its drug candidates into Phase 1 clinical studies. Cofounder and CEO Qing Dong sold his previous startup, XinThera, which was working in the areas of oncology and inflammation, to Gilead in 2023 for an undisclosed sum. Plus: GSK has entered into a licensing agreement with Korean biotech ABL for its neurological therapeutics in a deal worth up to $2.6 billion. Measles outbreaks may be the new normal as the Trump Administration's actions set the stage for a resurgence of the disease. A second child died of the disease over the weekend in Texas, where the number of cases has now risen above 500. The Trump Administration won't expand Medicare and Medicare coverage for GLP-1 drugs, rejecting a proposal from the Biden Administration to help people pay for the popular obesity drugs. Over the past few decades, public health efforts have made HIV a manageable disease rather than a deadly one. The Trump Administration's budget cuts threaten to change that. Biotech startups are struggling as the NIH slashes funding. Health insurance company stocks soared after the federal government announced that reimbursement rates for Medicare Advantage plans would increase by more than 5%. Trump's gutting of environmental programs could lead to worsening asthma attacks, increased ER visits and other big health problems for Americans. Hinge Health considers delaying its IPO after Trump tariffs send markets plummeting. Cuts at the FDA are so significant that they may prevent the government from spending user fees, which could significantly slow the drug approval process. There's currently no acting director of the CDC, as Susan Monarez had to step back from the role once Trump nominated her for the permanent director role. That means crucial decisions for the agency can only be made by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
