Impact of poverty on mortality

A paper by Brady et al. (2023) aims to measure this relationship in the US. They use data from the 1997-2019 Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data merged with the Cross-National Equivalent File. The data were validated with information from the National Death Index. The authors adjust for self-reported health, demographics, comorbidities and a…

Pediatric mortality rates rising

Some troubling statistics published recently by Woolf et al. (2023) using CDC WONDER data: Between 2019 and 2020, the all-cause mortality rate for ages 1 to 19 years increased by 10.7%, and it increased by an additional 8.3% between 2020 and 202…These increases, the largest in decades, followed a period of great progress in reducing…

Office of Generic Drugs 2022 Annual Report

FDA’s Office of Generic Drugs issued their 2022 Annual Report. Generic drugs play a vital role in saving patients and payers money. To give an example, pregabalin capsules cost $450 for a 30-day supply during the end of its market exclusivity period, but priced dropped to $23 (a 95% decrease) during the first 12 months…

Will half the world be overweight?

A study by the World Obesity Foundation predicts that more than half the global population will be living with overweight and obesity within 12 years if prevention, treatment and support do not improve. The report also predicts that the global economic burden of overweight and obesity will be $4.32 trillion or approximately 2.9% of global…

The cancer tax

An ambitious paper by Chen et al. (2023) published last week aim to estimate the economic burden of cancer across 204 countries between 2020 and 2050 . The authors find that cancer’s economic burden is equivalent to an annual tax of 0.55% of global GDP. The full results are below. The estimated global economic cost…

Single Arm Trials for FDA Drug Approvals in Oncology

These are becoming increasingly common. Agrawal et al. (2022) use data between 2002-2021, and found that FDA approved: …176 new malignant hematology and oncology indications based on single-arm trials, including 116 accelerated approvals (AAs) and 60 traditional approvals. Overall, 87 approvals (49%) were for new molecular entities or original biologics and 89 (51%) were supplemental…

Dual eligibles: A statistical overview

Medicare covers largely elderly individuals, the disabled, and individuals with end stage kidney disease. Medicaid covers low-income individuals. So who are dual eligibles, that qualify for both programs? The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) put out a report last year providing a summary of the…

“Housing is Healthcare”

That is a quote from a recent report by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) titled: “ALL IN: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness.” It is clear that homelessness causes poor health. Life expectancy for the average American is 77 years, but people who have experienced homelessness it is only…

FDA’s 2022 Drug Approvals

The year 2022 was a good, but perhaps not great year for innovation. According to the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research’s (CDER) New Drug Therapy Approvals 2022 report, there were 37 novel drugs approved in 2022. This number is down from the historical rate of approvals between 2013-2021 (43.4 approvals per year) and…