Are some drug prices actually too low? 🤔

Big corporations — giant retailers and health insurance companies — are teaming up to become your doctor and other interesting reads from the past week.

General

  • A $300 hepatitis C cure v/s current cost of $84,000? Link

  • Bayer contraceptive gets a "unique" FDA restriction. Link

  • California considers a radical health care price control bill. Link

  • The disappearing doctor: how mega-mergers are changing the business of medical care. Link

  • Lilly passes three NASH candidates to its newly-funded biotech startup. Link

  • India plans measures to facilitate drug exports. Link

  • International partnership invests $15.5 million to combat neglected tropical diseases, TB, malaria. Link

  • Mylan bets future on complex generics. Link

Digital Health

  • FDA approved an AI-based device to help detect diabetic retinopathy. Link

  • MIT's wearable device can 'hear' the words you say in your head. Link

  • Siren diabetic socks monitor the temperature of feet, detects early signs of injury 👇

Research

  • Future of injectables could be needle-free delivery systems. Link

  • Electric monitoring of gut’s muscles to avoid invasive procedures. Link

Perspective and Opinions

  • Are some drug prices actually too low? Link

  • Why do new medicines cost so much? Link

Interesting

  • Did deforestation cause the Ebola outbreak? Link

  • Rementia: is it possible to reverse the symptoms of dementia? Link

Startups of the Week

Sollis Therapeutics is focused on developing novel non-steroid, non-opioid analgesics. Closed a USD 50 million round.

Common Sensing is advancing a smart cap that tracks, logs and manages injectable dosage, timing, and storage information to get a complete picture of how people use injectable medicine at home and on-the-go. Closed a $6.6m USD Series A financing.

Mimetas provides organ-on-a-chip products for compound testing, screening and fundamental research. Secured $20.5m in Series B financing.