Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
What were the most popular posts on Healthcare Economist this year? Here are the top 10 in descending order: Valuing the Societal Impact of Medicines and Other Health Technologies: A User Guide to Current Best Practices The world is relying on the United States to get value-based drug pricing right Why is the market design…
In the US, opioid abuse has become and epidemic. However, in the past year, there is some hope that this epidemic is starting to reverse. Opioid deaths have fallen by 16.9% in the past year. Why have deaths fallen? According to The Economist, no one is sure: One possibility is a supply shock…the amount of…
Sanofi joins 340B lawsuit. Kaiser behavioral health workers on strike. Apologia of PBMs. Status of brain-computer interfaces. How old is the moon?
Below are my favorite books of the year. These are my favorite books that I read this year, not necessarily books that came out this year. On to the list! BOOK OF THE YEAR Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West by William Cronon. I learned so much from this book. It discusses the development…
A study by Fermaglich and Miller (2023) evaluated trends in orphan drug designations and approvals after the Orphan Drug Act of 1983 was passed in the US. The authors use FDA data to evaluate between 1983 and 2022 and find that: Over the 40 years of the ODA, 6,340 orphan drug designations were granted, representing…
A paper by Kowal et al. (2023) does in fact measure the disparities in health outcomes. To do this, they use data from the American Community Survey (ACS), the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) and the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) to estimate differences in life expectancy (LY), quality-adjusted life expectancy (QALE), and disability-free life…
The Washington Post reports on a meeting between President-elect Trump, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and a number of CEOs of pharmaceutical firms. When the topic turned to vaccines, the discussion was not about banning the products, the three people said. Kennedy spoke about the need for better study of the vaccine dosing schedule for newborns…
A paper from Guadamuz et al. (2024) examines trends in pharmacy closures between 2010-2021. The authors use data from the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (to describe US retail pharmacies), National Center for Health Statistics (to describe population characteristics at the county level) and the American Community Survey (to describe populations at the ZIP…
Drug use and homicide rates. In 2024, ~10% of Anguilla’s GDP will come from fees for its .ai domain name. The cost of next generation sequencing for cancer patients. Chernew: Medicare at 60. Econ PhD job market is down. Egypt is malaria free!
That is a key question if long-run drug prices are going to come down for biologic products. We can decompose this question into 3 sub-questions: What share patients initiating therapy start on a biosimilar? What share of patients already using a biologic products switch to a biosimilar? Do patient of physician factors drive biosimilar prescribing…