Since COVID-19 hit the U.S. in 2020, the pandemic has taken more than 800,000 American lives. In that same time, cancer has claimed 1.2 million lives, President Joe Biden said Feb. 2 as he “reignited” the cancer moonshot he first launched in 2016 when he was serving as vice president.

PERTH, Australia – A new parliamentary report, The New Frontier: Delivering better health for all Australians, is recommending significant reforms to the nation’s health care system to ensure Australians have faster access to new drugs and devices. The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Sport examined the range of new drugs and emerging medical technologies that are in development and progressing through the regulatory system in Australia and in other countries.

PERTH, Australia – A new parliamentary report, The New Frontier: Delivering better health for all Australians, is recommending significant reforms to the nation’s health care system to ensure Australians have faster access to new drugs and devices. The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Sport examined the range of new drugs and emerging medical technologies that are in development and progressing through the regulatory system in Australia and in other countries.

While comments continue to pour in, both in opposition and support, regarding the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposed national coverage decision that would restrict Medicare coverage of monoclonal antibodies intended to treat Alzheimer’s to those used in CMS- or NIH-approved clinical trials, some groups also are appealing to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra to step into an HHS agency turf war.

In proposing a national coverage determination to limit coverage of a class of Alzheimer’s drugs to those being used in clinical trials approved by the U.S. Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services or the NIH, CMS appears to be treading in FDA territory. “For the first time ever, Medicare is second-guessing FDA – and not only on work that it has already done, but on work FDA will do in the future,” said George Vradenburg, chair and co-founder of Us Against Alzheimer’s, a patient advocacy group. “HHS [the Department of Health and Human Services] is clearly at war with itself, with one agency approving this class of drugs and another slamming the door shut on treatment. . .. Does CMS no longer trust the FDA’s work?”

Prism Biolab Co. Ltd. has added Genentech Inc., a unit of Roche Holding AG, to the list of users for its peptide mimetic small-molecules library after signing a multitarget research collaboration and licensing agreement.