California Gives $25 Gift Cards to Boost Bird Flu Testing + More
Health officials in California are now offering gift cards to encourage folks near farms to get tested for bird flu. The project is a partnership between the state and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to CBS News.
Clinics run by a state vendor near affected farms are giving out $25 gift cards to people who get a swab test for H5N1 bird flu or receive a seasonal flu shot. A CDC van is also visiting some areas to offer testing through its Avian Flu Influenza Area Surveillance Testing project.
This effort pushes back against bogus claims on social media suggesting that states have stopped testing farmworkers for bird flu under orders from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The CDC confirmed that its guidance has not changed — people with symptoms are still encouraged to seek testing from their doctor or local health department. A spokesperson for the California Department of Public Health said much the same.
Fentanyl Pipeline: How a Chinese Prison Helped Fuel a Deadly Drug Crisis in the United States
China’s vast security apparatus shrouds itself in shadows, but the outside world has caught periodic glimpses of it behind the faded gray walls of Shijiazhuang prison in the northern province of Hebei. Chinese media reports have shown inmates hunched over sewing machines in a garment workshop in the sprawling facility. Business leaders and Chinese Communist Party dignitaries have praised the penitentiary for exemplifying President Xi Jinping’s views on the rule of law.
But the prison has an alarming secret, U.S. congressional investigators disclosed last year. They revealed evidence showing that it is a Chinese government outpost in the trafficking pipeline that inundates the U.S. with fentanyl.
For at least eight years, the prison owned a chemical company called Yafeng, the hub of a group of Chinese firms and websites that sold fentanyl products to Americans, according to the U.S. congressional investigation, as well as Chinese government and corporate records obtained by ProPublica. The company’s English-language websites brazenly offered U.S. customers dangerous drugs that are illegal in both nations.
Promising to smuggle illicit chemicals past U.S. and Mexican border defenses, Yafeng boasted to American clients that “100% of our shipments will clear customs.”
CIDRAP Launches Vaccine Integrity Project to Help Safeguard US Vaccine Use
As the U.S. experiences a large measles outbreak and faces a continuing barrage of vaccine misinformation and cuts to public health programs, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota is launching a project to help ensure safe US vaccine use.
Funded by an unrestricted gift of $240,000 from Alumbra, a foundation established by philanthropist Christy Walton, the Vaccine Integrity Project will be led by an eight-member steering committee of leading public health and policy experts from across the country. “This project acknowledges the unfortunate reality that the system that we’ve relied on to make vaccine recommendations and to review safety and effectiveness data faces threats,” CIDRAP Director Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, said in a University of Minnesota news release.
“It is prudent to evaluate whether independent activities may be needed to stand in its place and how non-governmental groups might operate to continue to provide science-based information to the American public.”
Court Ruling Opens Door to FDA Action Against Ozempic Compounders
Novo Nordisk has notched a major legal win against compounding pharmacies that make copies of its diabetes and obesity drug semaglutide, sold under the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy.
A federal judge on Thursday ruled against a compounding trade group’s request for a preliminary injunction that would have prevented the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from taking action against its members for making copies of semaglutide. Compounding pharmacies are legally allowed to make versions of branded treatments if the drugs are deemed to be in shortage by the FDA.
For the two years when Ozempic and Wegovy were recently in shortage, compounders rushed to make copies to meet the enormous demand for weight loss treatments. But when semaglutide was ultimately taken off the FDA’s shortage list in February, the compounding trade group, called the Outsourcing Facilities Association, quickly sued the agency, arguing that there were still in actuality shortages of the branded treatments.
Roche, Answering Tariff Threat, Pledges $50B to US Drug Production
Roche is the fifth big drugmaker this year to promise to significantly boost its U.S. manufacturing capacity, following Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Merck & Co. and Novartis. All told, the five have committed more than $160 billion to U.S. drug production in the coming years.
Roche’s outlay will create a series of new plants, such as a gene therapy facility in Pennsylvania and an AI-focused R&D hub in Massachusetts. It would also fund expansions and upgrades for existing facilities that make medicines and diagnostics. Those plants are located in Kentucky, Indiana, New Jersey, Oregon, Arizona and California.
“Today’s announced investments underscore our long-standing commitment to research, development and manufacturing in the U.S.,” said Roche CEO Thomas Schinecker, in a statement. “We are proud of our 110 year legacy in the United States which has been a key driver for jobs, innovation and the creation of intellectual property in the US, across both our pharmaceutical and diagnostics divisions.”
Merck Stock Takes a Hit as Gardasil ‘Woes’ Continue in China, Japan
Investor’s Business Daily reported:
Merck (MRK) stock slumped Thursday after the company reported another quarter of light sales for its human papillomavirus vaccine, Gardasil. Gardasil sales plummeted 41% to $1.33 billion, widely missing Wall Street’s expectations for $1.47 billion, according to FactSet. This is the third consecutive quarter of decelerating sales for Gardasil amid lackluster demand for the HPV vaccine in China. Excluding China, sales grew 14%, or 16% excluding the impact of exchange rates.
Merck said it paused shipments to China during the fourth quarter to help reduce inventory. The company also pulled its $11 billion guidance for 2030 Gardasil sales. The drug is Merck’s second biggest moneymaker behind Keytruda and, in 2024, generated more than 10% of total sales.
“We see significant risk to the Gardasil franchise, as China woes continue, Japan catch-up vaccination is expected to slow and ACIP seems to favor a single-dose approach,” Leerink Partners analyst Daina Graybosch said in a report. ACIP, or the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, makes vaccine recommends under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
WHO to Shrink Its Geneva Headquarters Down to Just Four Programme Divisions – With Health Systems a Key Pillar
A new, and near final iteration of the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) reorganization will shrink its programme divisions even further than previous drafts — from 10 to only four — with health systems emerging as one key pillar of the revamped organization.
At the same time, disease control departments and preventive health teams — such as health promotion and environment, climate and health, will all fall under one division — for the first time in years, according to a copy of the plan, obtained by Health Policy Watch. This is in contrast to a previous “straw draft” that that had etched out five divisions, including health systems and health workforce rolled into a division with environment and health promotion.
And along with the four mainstream divisions – the office of the Chief Scientist and “Chef de Cabinet, i.e. external relations,” would be retained as separate entities.
The new plan for WHO’s headquarters, which boasts 34 departments as compared to nearly 60 now, was presented by WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to both WHO staff as well as to WHO member states at separate, closed sessions on Tuesday.
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Tom
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Cally…what a freaking joke.
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