In this issue:

🇺🇸 US health chief confirmed

🇬🇧 UK biotechs buoyant

🦗 Smart data will help end malaria

📱 FDA approves drug to treat the cancer that killed Steve Jobs

💰 Big pharma's lobbying spree in Trump's first year

US health chief confirmed

Alex Azar was confirmed by the Senate as health and human services secretary. The former pharma executive's priorities include reining in drug prices and mending fences with Congress after the rancour of the Obamacare repeal process.

via Politico

UK biotechs buoyant

An industry report said UK biotech's pipelines were the biggest in Europe as it strives to become the third biggest hub behind San Francisco and Boston. Initial public offerings raised double the amount of the previous year.

via City A.M

Smart data will help end malaria

From 2000 to 2016, the number of malaria cases worldwide dropped 60%, thanks to a large global public health effort, a number of tireless nonprofit NGOs—and frankly, effective leadership and smart, targeted spending from organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill Gates offered his take this week on what would allow us to eliminate this scourge by 2040—which is a real possibility, he says, if we keep relentless energy and focus on the effort. 

So what’s new on the wish list? More sophisticated precision data tools to understand how, where, and why infections are spreading, where mosquito populations are thriving, whether prevention strategies are working or not, and where we’re making progress or backsliding. Said Sue Desmond-Hellmann, CEO of the Gates Foundation: “We need smart data and analytics to guide the path.”

via WeForum

FDA approves drug to treat the cancer that killed Steve Jobs

Novartis scored a milestone FDA win Thursday just days after closing its acquisition of Advanced Accelerator Applications; the French biotech's cancer drug Lutathera has been approved in the U.S. to treat the rare, ugly digestive tract cancer which killed Steve Jobs. The first therapy in its class to be cleared here, Lutathera has a particularly interesting action mechanism, as Reuters reports: "Lutathera is unusual in that it harnesses the same molecule that is used to diagnose cancer to also deliver the treatment."

via Reuters

Big pharma's lobbying spree in Trump's first year

The pharmaceutical industry went on red alert after Trump said drug companies were "getting away with murder" and had "a lot of power." It's worked: In the year since, Trump and Congress have not changed drug pricing laws.

via Axios