InnovationRx: Scientists Show How Bird Flu Spreads Between Mammals

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President Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race.

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President Biden dropped out of the presidential election and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday. Since then, Democrats have largely lined up behind Harris, and she has already secured the endorsement of enough party delegates to become the Democratic Party nominee.

As of this writing, the Harris for President website doesn’t have any policy positions. However, one major healthcare-related issue that’s likely to be a centerpiece of the campaign is abortion rights. Harris has been more outspoken about this issue than the outgoing President, and with abortion rights on the ballot in states like Arizona and Florida, it’s likely to be an issue where she believes she can swing votes. Harris championed abortion rights as a senator, co-sponsoring related legislation and receiving a 100% rating by Reproductive Freedom For All (formerly NARAL.)

Other healthcare issues that Harris’ campaign has highlighted in the past couple of days on various social media platforms include a Biden-Harris Administration proposal to keep medical debt from being reported on people’s credit reports. She’s criticizedGOP nominee Donald Trump for wanting to repeal the Biden Administration’s $35 cap on out-of-pocket insulin costs and wanting to cut Medicare.

Writing in STAT, Rachel Cohrs Zhang and Sarah Owermohle note that during the 2020 Democratic primary, Harris’ healthcare positions were well to the left of Biden’s: she endorsed a shift to a Medicare-for-All-style plan that included private insurers and also pushed more more aggressive intervention by the government on the price of drugs. It remains to be seen if she’ll campaign at all on these issues.

Editor’s note: Quick note that InnovationRx will be on vacation next week. See you back here on August 7!

Scientists Show How Bird Flu Spreads Between Mammals — As H5N1 Pandemic Fears Grow

Scientists have proven how cows have spread H5N1 bird flu to wild birds, cats and raccoons.

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Scientists have proven how cows have spread H5N1 bird flu across the country and infected other cows, wild birds and even mammals like cats and raccoons, according to research published in Nature. These findings suggest it may be capable of spreading effectively between people in the future as outbreaks on poultry and dairy farms spark concerns the virus could trigger a pandemic in humans.

This marks one of the first direct observations “of efficient and sustained mammalian-to-mammalian transmission” of H5N1, Diego Diel, an associate professor of virology at Cornell and one of the study’s authors said in a press release. On the bright side, While the data clearly showed evidence of mammal-to-mammal transmission, genetic analysis has not yet revealed any signs that would lead to enhanced transmissibility in humans. But the risk will increase as the virus continues to spread among dairy cows across the world.

Read more here.

Pipeline & Deal Updates

Cancer: Billionaire Napster cofounder Sean Parker is committing $125 million to the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy with the aim of discovering breakthrough cancer treatments. “We make big bets on bold research and enable the world’s brightest minds to focus on the toughest problems,” Parker said in a statement.

Robots: Clarapath, which builds robotics systems for pathology labs, announced a $36 million series B-1 round.

Mental Health: Headway, which develops software to support mental health clinicians and patients, announced it has raised a $100 million series D round that values the company at $2.3 billion.

Chip-Based Testing: The FDA has cleared the use of Genalyte’s silicon chip-based blood test to detect levels of TSH, one of the most commonly ordered tests. It’s capable of turning around results in around 30 minutes.

M&A: Agilent announced it’s acquiring CDMO Biovectra for $925 million.

Cardio Devices: Kestra Medical Technologies, which develops wearable devices such as defibrillators for cardiac patients, announced a $196 million funding round.

AI Acquisition: Publicly-traded ambient AI company Augmedix will be acquired by VC-backed healthtech startup Commure for $139 million in equity value. The deal, which is expected to close in the third or fourth quarter of this year, will give Augmedix shareholders $2.35 in cash per share.

Despite Gilead’s Promising HIV Prevention Drug, A Vaccine Is Still The ‘Holy Grail’

UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima.

AFP via Getty Images

This week the world’s top HIV researchers are gathering in Munich for the 25th annual International AIDS Conference. While there have been amazing advances with PrEP options, including the latest twice-yearly injectable lenacapavir data from Gilead Sciences, people need to continue taking the medication as long as they remain at-risk, which could be an entire lifetime. The obvious solution would be a much cheaper vaccine that could provide years of protection, but it’s a research puzzle that has eluded top scientists in government, academia and industry for more than two decades.

There are several big challenges with HIV that boil down to the same principle: it’s a very sneaky escape artist that is constantly changing and using decoys to evade capture by the immune system. “There’s this sort of sad aphorism that we’re always 10 years away from an effective HIV vaccine,” Katharine Bar, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania told Forbes. “But I think science doesn’t necessarily move at a linear pace. It’s a big breakthrough followed by iterative changes, followed by another breakthrough.”

Read more here.

Other Healthcare News

Meet The New Biotech Billionaire Putting Pig Hearts In Humans

Humana To Open Clinics at Shuttered Former Walmart Health Sites

GLP-1s Are Growing In Popularity For Weight Loss But Losing Steam Among People With Diabetes, Study Suggests

UK Approves Wegovy For Lowering Heart Risks

What To Know About The Deadly Nipah Virus As India Races To Contain Another Outbreak

Listeria Outbreak Hits 12 States

HIV Treatment Likely Cures 7th Person In History

Excess Arm And Stomach Fat Boosts Alzheimer’s And Parkinson’s Risk While Muscle Strength Decreases It, Study Suggests

Across Forbes

Why The Supreme Court’s Attack On Federal Agencies Is A Boon For Crypto

The Internet Isn’t Big Enough To Train AI. One Fix? Fake Data.

How Jersey Mike’s Owner Peter Cancro Turned His Local Deli Into A $6 Billion Franchise Phenom

What Else We are Reading

Blood culture bottle shortage challenges hospitals, labs (STAT)

Louisiana Reclassifies Drugs Used in Abortions as Controlled Dangerous Substances (KFF Health News)

A Disease That Makes Children Age Rapidly Gets Closer to a Cure (The New York Times)

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