A long-standing and contentiously debated question is the extent to which US federal food assistance programs contribute to or deter healthy beverage intake. Findings of a new study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior show that while beverage intake patterns rarely differed between mothers and young children who participated only in the Supplementation Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), only the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or neither program, those whose households participated in both programs consumed high amounts of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). Bottled water intake, which is common among communities with high distrust of tap water and can be an economic burden for low-income families, was also common among mothers participating in WIC and SNAP. While both WIC and SNAP aim to improve families’ food security, the programs operate quite differently. WIC benefits allow the purchase of specific foods and beverages and are only available to pregnant and breast-feeding women ...
Pictured: Sign of U.S. Department of Health & Human Services at its headquarters in Washington/iStock, JHVEPhoto The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will now provide broader coverage for Eisai and Biogen’s Alzheimer’s disease therapy Leqembi (lecanemab), the federal agency announced Thursday. The Medicare coverage expansion comes after Leqembi won the FDA’s traditional approval, making it the first anti-amyloid and disease-altering treatment to do so. Eisai and Biogen were granted accelerated approval for Leqembi in January and soon commenced their bid for full approval with data from the Phase III Clarity-AD study. According to CMS, only patients enrolled in Medicare and with physicians participating in a qualified registry will be eligible for reimbursement—provided their doctors collect their data as real-world evidence for Leqembi and submit it to a registry. Coverage is restricted to those who are diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment or mild Alzheimer’s disease dementia, with evidence of beta-amyloid deposits in the brain. “With FDA’s decision, CMS will ...
Moderna on Wednesday said it struck a deal with Chinese officials to research, develop and manufacture messenger RNA medicines in the country, despite rising tensions between the U.S. and China. The Massachusetts-based biotech company signed a memorandum of understanding and a related land collaboration deal to develop drugs that will “be exclusively for the Chinese people” and won’t “be exported,” a Moderna spokesperson told CNBC. Chinese media outlet Yicai first reported on Tuesday that Moderna was slated to make its first investment in China that could be worth around $1 billion, citing unnamed sources. The outlet also reported that Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel was visiting Shanghai. The Moderna spokesperson did not confirm the report or comment on the size of the deal. “These agreements are focused on strengthening health security by targeting unmet needs and contributing to the ecosystem of medical solutions available to patients in China,” the spokesperson said. ...
Purolite, a subsidiary of Ecolab that produces purification resins for drug manufacturing, earmarked at least $190 million to build a production plant that will employ 170 workers.The facility, which will produce a variety of products for the healthcare and drug manufacturing industries, will be located in Landenberg, Pennsylvania, according to a June 6 press release from Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office. Resins are used to purify process streams during drug manufacturing and are considered critical to final product quality although they are not part of the finished product. The facility is expected to be completed by the first half of 2025. It will represent the first site in Purolite’s U.S. biologics division. “Purolite’s new facility will help bring security of supply to our global pharmaceutical and biotech customers, enabling lifesaving drugs to reach patients fast,” Hayley Crowe, Purolite’s senior vice president and general manager, said in the release. Purolite received a ...
Eisai is the latest drugmaker to be hit with a ransomware attack.The Japanese company said it “immediately” set up a company-wide task force after suffering a cyberattack Saturday night. Now, it’s working to respond with external experts and law enforcement officials, Eisai said in a statement. The possibility of data leaks is currently under investigation, the company said. Eisai expects it will take “some time to gauge the full extent of the incident.” During the response, Eisai took some of its computer systems, both inside and outside of Japan, offline. For now, its corporate websites and email systems remain operational. As for the impact on the company’s earnings, Eisai is “carefully examining” any potential impact on its earnings forecast and will announce “as soon as possible” if revisions are necessary. Japan has seen an increasing amount of cyberattacks recently, according to The Japan Times. An official at the National Center ...
The World Health Organization on Saturday launched a global network to help swiftly detect the threat from infectious diseases, like COVID-19, and share the information to prevent their spread. The International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN) will provide a platform for connecting countries and regions, improving systems for collecting and analyzing samples, the agency said. The network aims to help ensure infectious disease threats are swiftly identified and tracked and the information shared and acted on to prevent catastrophes like the COVID pandemic. The network will rely on pathogen genomics to analyze the genetic code of viruses, bacteria and other disease-causing organisms to understand how infectious and deadly they are and how they spread. The data gathered will feed into a broader disease surveillance system used to identify and track diseases, in a bid to contain outbreaks and to develop treatments and vaccines. ‘Ambitious’ goals WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hailed ...
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Monkeypox is caused by the monkeypox virus, a member of the same family of viruses as smallpox BBC By Michelle Roberts Digital health editor Monkeypox is no longer a global public health emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said, almost a year after the threat was raised. The virus is still around and further waves and outbreaks could continue, but the highest level of alert is over, the WHO added. The global health body’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on countries to “remain vigilant”. It can be passed on by close contact with someone who is infected. What is monkeypox? Its official name is Mpox and it is caused by the monkeypox virus, a member of the same family of viruses as smallpox, although it is much less severe. Initial symptoms include fever, headaches, swellings, back pain, aching muscles. Once the fever breaks ...
Real-time patient experiences is the missing element to most electronic health records, artificial intelligence, and machine learning models today. Anish Patankar, SVP, GM, Oncology Informatics Software, Elekta Cancer treatment has come a long way in recent years and is now evolving more rapidly through the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as machine learning (ML). Currently, health data exists in many forms, including electronic health records (EHR), diagnostic images, genomic and molecular data, pharmacological data, and patient-reported data. The creation of state-of-the-art cancer treatments can be enhanced by the ways clinicians leverage data to optimize care, and there’s no better way to achieve this than through the use of AI. Completing the picture There is a missing element to most EHR, AI, and ML models today – real-time patient-reported outcomes. This type of data refers to information regarding patients’ experiences with their medical conditions, treatments, and healthcare providers, ...
Lisette Hilton | Healthcare practices are already using chatbots to help with administrative tasks like scheduling appointments or requests for prescription refills. And while users say the current generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology falls short for safely treating patients, a recent survey of healthcare practices suggests 77% of users predict chatbots will be able to treat patients within the next decade. According to Software Advice’s 2023 Medical Chatbot Survey of 65 healthcare providers or practice owners who use live chatbots on their websites, which was conducted in March 2023, more than three quarters of those surveyed are extremely or somewhat confident in chatbots’ ability to assess patients’ symptoms. Chris R. Alabiad, MD, professor of clinical ophthalmology and ophthalmology residency program director at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Miami, FL, has tested the use of ChatGPT (Open AI) in the academic and clinical settings. He piloted the use of ChatGPT at Bascom ...
After the European Commission proposed a massive overhaul to the EU’s drug legislation, a group of 19 European countries is launching an effort to reduce the bloc’s supply chain reliance on outside countries. The position paper (PDF) urges the EU to “take more drastic steps” to improve the security of Europe’s supply of medicines. Belgium is leading the charge, and 18 other countries such as France, Germany and Spain are on board. In 2019, more than 40% of global active pharmaceutical ingredients came from China, the countries point out. That, coupled with other factors such as the fact that “almost all API producers depend on China for intermediate inputs,” make Europe and the rest of the world dependent on “a few manufacturers for a large bulk of their medicines supply,” according to the paper. The proposed European Critical Medicine Act would follow in the footsteps of similar acts such as the Critical Raw Materials Act ...
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