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What We're Reading: MSKCC Fallout Continues; Drug Patent Tactics; Ebola Fears Rise
The chairman of the board of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) told the hospital’s staff that the former chief medical officer, José Baselga, MD, had “crossed lines” and had gone “off the reservation” in his outside dealings with health and drug companies; more than any other industry, the pharmaceutical industry benefits from a patent strategy that allows small changes in existing drugs to confer continued patent protection; public health officials are worried that the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo may be spinning beyond their control and could spill over into Uganda and Rwanda.
MSKCC Email Reveals Leadership's Thoughts on Controversy Over Former CMO
The chairman of the board of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center told the hospital’s staff that the former chief medical officer, José Baselga, MD, had “crossed lines” and had gone “off the reservation” in his outside dealings with health and drug companies. In an email obtained inadvertently by The New York Times, the comments by Douglas A. Warner III, the chairman, as well as Craig B. Thompson, MD, the chief executive, went beyond previous statements about the Baselga. The hospital previously had said that Baselga followed internal policies and had just failed to disclose his industry affiliations in some medical journal articles.
Patent Protection Strategies Unique in Pharmaceutical Industry
More than any other industry, the pharmaceutical industry benefits from a patent strategy that allows small changes in existing drugs to confer continued patent protection, Kaiser Health News reported. The series of secondary protective patents is a tactic critics call “evergreening” or “product-hopping.” Attempts to change the patent system have intensified as drug prices continue to rise.
Ebola Fears Rise for Border Countries Around the Democratic Republic of Congo
Public health officials are worried that the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo may be spinning beyond their control and could spill over into Uganda and Rwanda, STAT News reported. Ebola response teams are facing restrictions on their movements in a conflict zone, and if response teams lose sight of where the virus goes, it could spread undetected and unchecked in places where they cannot safely travel. To date, there have been 161 cases and 105 deaths.
Urticaria Diagnosis Challenged by Overlapping Pruritic Skin Conditions
April 23rd 2025Urticaria is complicated to diagnose by its symptomatic overlap with other skin conditions and the frequent misclassification in literature of distinct pathologies like vasculitic urticaria and bullous pemphigus.
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New Research Challenges Assumptions About Hospital-Physician Integration, Medicare Patient Mix
April 22nd 2025On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Brady Post, PhD, lead author of a study published in the April 2025 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care®, challenges the claim that hospital-employed physicians serve a more complex patient mix.
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Personalized Care Key as Tirzepatide Use Expands Rapidly
April 15th 2025Using commercial insurance claims data and the US launch of tirzepatide as their dividing point, John Ostrominski, MD, Harvard Medical School, and his team studied trends in the use of both glucose-lowering and weight-lowering medications, comparing outcomes between adults with and without type 2 diabetes.
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ACOs’ Focus on Rooting Out Fraud Aligns With CMS Vision Under Oz
April 23rd 2025Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are increasingly playing the role of data sleuths as they identify and report trends of anomalous billing in hopes of salvaging their shared savings. This mission dovetails with that of CMS, which under the new administration plans to prioritize rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse.
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