Category: Medical Industry

Categories : COVID Medical IndustryTags :

Over Half of SA Has Had COVID, Says Discovery CEO

On By ModernMedia

From the number of excess deaths in South Africa, it appears that over half of South Africa has been infected with COVID at least once.

The CEO and founder of the Discovery Group, Adrian Gore, has said in an interview on 702’s The Money Show that he believes over half of the South African population has had COVID. He believes that there is “absolutely no ambiguity” that the “sky high” excess death rates recorded in SA are attributable to COVID. He said that the excess deaths point to over 50% of the SA population having been infected with COVID so far.

The latest data released by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) puts the number of excess deaths in SA over the course of the pandemic at 137 731 – nearly triple the official death toll from COVID. Nearly 5000 Discovery members and 12 staff members have died. 
Last week, SA National Blood Service released a study showing that 32% of people in the Northern Cape up to 63% of people in the Eastern Cape had contracted COVID. Gore said that this high infection rate would hopefully reduce the impact of the third wave predicted to arrive in the colder winter months.

“We are hoping that a third wave may take longer and might be less because we think the infection rate has been high.” He said, adding that if the first and second phases of vaccination targetting healthcare workers and vulnerable individuals was completed by mid-year, a third wave might be completely avoided.

He said that young, healthy people who can afford a vaccine should not be able to get one before those who were older and more vulnerable. “Not following this process would mean low-risk people get vaccinated before the clinically vulnerable, resulting in unnecessary illness and death. This cannot and should not happen,” he said in a Linkedin post.

He also refuted the rumour that Discovery was not paying contributions towards non-members’ vaccinations. In fact, he said on The Money Show, that medical aid schemes have extra cash to pay for this since members had been going for fewer treatments during the pandemic. This amounts to some R24 billion in surplus, as revealed by regulatory filings, which would be right in the middle of cost estimates for SA’s entire vaccination programme as opposed to the 30% amount that medical aid companies were being expected to contribute.

Source: Business Insider

Categories : Expert Opinion Medical IndustryTags :

Like 60s Cars, Brand Drugs Have no Price Competition

On By ModernMedia

Brand name drugs, like American cars in the 1960s, are subject to broadly rising prices with little evidence of competing on cost.

Before the oil embargo by Arab countries in 1973 allowed competition from more affordable, fuel efficient cars that we take for granted today, the Big Three car manufacturers, Ford, Chrysler and General Motors, would annually announce price increases at about the same time. Any adjustment by one manufacturer, for example, in size, was quickly matched by competitors.New research analysed the prices for five classes of drugs, and found them to be increasing in lock-step from 2015 to 2020. These classes are direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOACs), P2Y12 inhibitors, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists, dipeptidyl dipeptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors, and sodium-glucose transport protein-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors.

The study had limitations due to not taking into account measures such as rebates, which would affect the price for the patient. However, even if these were taken into consideration, the researchers believe the overall prices would still increase and have to be borne by some patients who would not benefit from certain rebates. “Rebates, list prices, and net prices have been growing for brand-name medications, and rebate growth has been shown to positively correlate with list price growth, thereby impacting costs faced by patients paying a percentage of (or the full) list price,” the researchers noted. “Therefore, the lock-step price increases of brand-name medications, without evidence of price competition, raise concerns and would be expected to adversely affect patient adherence to medications and thus clinical outcomes.”

Unlike the oil crisis which broke open the automobile market to foreign competitors, the solution with “Big Pharma” is less clear. The researchers recommend policies which would limit such lock-step price increases, reduced patent exclusivity periods, and quicker introduction of generic equivalents.

Source: MedPage Today

Journal information: Liu P, et al “Trends in Within-Class Changes in US Average Wholesale Prices for Brand-Name Medications for Common Conditions From 2015 to 2020” JAMA Netw Open 2021; DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.35064.

Categories : COVID Medical Industry VaccinesTags : 1 Comment

Johnson & Johnson is Behind on Vaccine Production

On By ModernMedia

Despite releasing promising data on its COVID vaccine, Johnson & Johnson may fall up to two months behind on its vaccine production schedule, Politico reported. The company is still committed to releasing the trial data on its 45 000 participants by the end of January to pave the way for approval.

If approved, as seems likely, the vaccine would be extremely beneficial for vaccination efforts as it would only require a single dose to confer protection and also would not require sub zero refrigeration, greatly simplifying vaccination efforts.

The company’s effort is part of the Operation Warp Speed initiative to vaccinate the US population as fast as possible, with a goal of vaccinating 80% of the country’s 330.7 million population by the end of June. The previous goal to distribute 20 million doses by the end of 2020 had already fallen short owing to insufficient production.

The co-director of Operation Warp Speed, Moncef Slaoui, hinted at a production slowdown, telling the media that the company was expecting to produce “single-digit million” doses by the second half of February. “We’re trying to make that number get as close to a double-digit number as possible, and then a larger number in March and a much larger number in April,” he added.

Johnson & Johnson had previously made a pledge to deliver 12 million doses by the end of February and as many as 100 million by June.

Despite the delay, there is good news in that initial data from 400 participants shows that the vaccine is safe and has a 90% efficacy in establishing antibodies, with immunity for most subjects established 29 days after the shot and lasting at least 57 days. Adverse reactions were reported to be be mild, and younger subjects were more likely to report them, with one subject experiencing a brief, mild fever.

Source: Politico

Categories : COVID Medical IndustryTags :

Netcare CEO Recounts Challenges and Lessons of 2020

On By ModernMedia

In an interview posted on Moneyweb, the CEO of Netcare, Dr Richard Friedland, related how the company had weathered a very hard financial year.

“We have certainly felt the effects financially and we haven’t been able to pay a dividend to shareholders. But, as I’ve said to all of our frontline workers, we paid a dividend to South Africa in terms of looking after so many thousands – more than 28 000 Covid patients. That is far more significant than anything we could have done in monetary terms,” said Friedland.

The company learned valuable lessons, being at “the tip of the spear” of the COVID pandemic. Following their first cases on March 9, a large outbreak occurred at St Augustine’s, followed by a much smaller one at Kingsway. 

Friedland spoke of the sacrifices the staff had made over the past months, saying “This is not a time to abandon them. It’s a time to stand with them. It does mean our recovery will be longer, but we’ll do that together. And I think it’s critically important, given the headwinds we’re facing in South Africa.”

The company made much of its profit from asset disposal, but Friedland said that they were seeing a return to demands for elective surgery, excepting their two hospitals in the Nelson Mandela Bay area. He noted that there was a noticeable uptick in cases, similar to what they had experienced in the first wave, and that their hospitals were relatively full. However, they were putting their lessons learned into practice by having readied adequate stores of PPE and oxygen, for example. The length of stay has been reduced from 22 days to seven. He remarked on how stressful the pandemic had been for all concerned, but he said that continued efforts must be made.

“[…]Covid nearly robbed us of our humanity, and we need to be very careful about that going forward, particularly as healthcare workers, when patients cannot see their loved ones, when they’ve got to communicate with us through masks and spaces. We’ve managed to find other ways, through Facetime and mobiles, to communicate with their loved ones; but there’s no excuse for [not] improving communication all the time. I think Covid exposed that and there’s been a lot of anxiety as a result that we still need to manage,” concluded Friedland.