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| Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios |
Overdose deaths are down. Life expectancy is up. The odds of surviving cancer are improving, and we’re even losing weight.Why it matters: In a year defined by election-related stress, global tensions and economic uncertainty, there’s a surprisingly hopeful trend. By a few key measures, Americans are getting healthier, Axios’ Adriel Bettelheim reports.Breakthrough therapies and more preventive care are playing a part. So, too are shifting attitudes on drinking and drugs, especially among Gen Z.Fatal overdoses declined in 2023 and are falling even faster this year, according to preliminary CDC data.Life expectancy is trending upward —one of several data points that indicate public health is rebounding since the pandemic.The obesity rate has stopped climbing for the first time in a decade, just as weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic are becoming the rage.The five-year relative survival rate for all cancers has increased from 49% in the mid-1970s to 69% from 2013 to 2019, per the American Cancer Society.Reality check: Americans still live shorter lives and experience more sickness than people in other high-income countries. The odds of surviving a health crisis are especially bad if you’re poor or an ethnic or racial minority.Keep reading … Caitlin Owens and Tina Reed contributed reporting.Monstrous Milton closes in  Data: NOAA. Chart: Axios VisualsHurricane Milton remains on track for a potentially calamitous landfall in the vicinity of Tampa Bay tonight or early tomorrow, Axios’ Andrew Freedman reports.A track that is either a direct hit on Tampa or just to the north would be a worst-case scenario for the city. Hundreds of Duke Energy trucks stage at The Villages, Fla., yesterday. Photo: Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel via Getty Images An unprecedented 10-to-15-foot surge above ground level could lead to a huge footprint of real estate being inundated along and to the south of the point of landfall.Forecasters and millions of evacuated residents will be watching every wobble of the hurricane’s eye as it approaches Florida’s coast. That will be decisive in where the most damaging surge hits. $2 Medicare generic drug list unveiled By Maya Goldman  Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios The Biden administration today will release a preliminary list of generic drugs that would be made available to Medicare recipients under a pilot program for no more than $2 out of pocket.The big picture: The initiative — which covers common drugs for high cholesterol, high blood pressure and other chronic conditions — aims to test whether offering low-cost generics can boost seniors’ medication adherence and health outcomes, while giving them more certainty on out-of-pocket costs.Driving the news: The administration is asking for feedback on 101 generic drugs that could be covered by the pilot, officials told Axios.The list includes common prescriptions like penicillin, metformin, lithium and albuterol asthma inhalers. Thirty-five of the drugs treat blood pressure and other cardiovascular conditions.Drugs on the list wouldn’t be subject to requirements like prior authorization or quantity limits. There still would be safety-related restrictions.Medicare’s Innovation Center assembled the list by looking at the clinical roles of different drugs, their cost to prescription drug plans and how often they’re used by Medicare enrollees.95% of seniors who used their prescription drug coverage in 2023 filled a prescription for a drug on the sample list, per CMS.The Innovation Center began developing the list following a 2022 executive order from President Biden directing the center to test new ways to lower patients’ drug costs.Weight Watchers to offer compounded GLP-1 drugs By Nathan Bomey  Ozempic injection pens move along a conveyor at a Novo Nordisk factory in Hillerod, Denmark. Photo: Carsten Snejbjerg/Bloomberg via Getty Images WeightWatchers will begin selling compounded alternatives to certain weight-loss drugs that are experiencing shortages.Why it matters: Federal law allows companies to sell compounded versions of drugs that are on the FDA’s shortages list — which has led to a surge of copycats to the newly popular class of GLP-1 injections.But regulators last week issued a reminder that “compounded drugs must meet conditions to qualify for exemptions” to be sold to the public.Driving the news: WeightWatchers said Tuesday that it will sell compounded versions of semaglutide — the key ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy.It’s $129 for the first month, followed by $189 per month after that, plus a nonrefundable $49 initial consultation fee.The price “includes behavioral and clinical solutions with support from board-certified clinicians, registered dietitians, and the global WeightWatchers community,” the company said in a statement.The intrigue: The move came less than two weeks after the sudden exit of WeightWatchers CEO Sima Sistani, who had led the company to embrace weight-loss drugs and acknowledge that personal responsibility isn’t always enough to shed pounds. from STAT:gene therapyChinese biotechs advance CRISPR Duchenne drugsAs U.S. programs to develop treat treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy stall, two of the first efforts in China to treat the condition with CRISPR gene editing are taking off.One biotech, GenAssist, has already dosed one young boy. Meanwhile, the other company, Huidagene, expects to dose the first of several boys in the next few weeks and report data by the first quarter of next year.Scientists and advocates have long hoped that CRISPR could unlock a more powerful treatment for Duchenne than the technology used in Elevidys, the much-debated gene therapy from Sarepta. The need for such a treatment only grew last November, when trial results confirmed that Elevidys, while potentially useful, is far from a cure. |
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