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Hello,
Welcome to Dispensed, our weekly newsletter recapping all the big healthcare stories that kept our team busy this week. For those who are new to the newsletter, I'm $4, a senior reporter here on the team.
I'm curious to hear what you all think of $4 at $25 for patients. How many plans will pick this up? How many patients will this impact? I guess time will tell.
It'll also be interesting to see how the healthcare industry taps into Alexa now that Amazon's $4. Would you want to set up an appointment or give your doctor an update via the Echo Dot in your living room?
One thing to keep an eye on: the FDA is holding a hearing about cannabis next month. One day, it $4 to make foods and drinks with certain levels of the cannabis extract CBD, at least according to $4 from outgoing FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb.
New to our newsletter? You can $4.
$4 had the story on the newest test out using the Helix DNA kit. It looks at risk of some of the same conditions 23andMe looks at, but includes genetic counseling and requires a doctor's sign-off. Here's what you need to know about it.
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- On Tuesday, DNA testing startup Helix launched a new test that looks at your risk of diseases like breast cancer, colon cancer, and high cholesterol.
- You can buy the test online for $260, but it must be approved by a physician.
- Helix partnered with clinical diagnostics company PerkinElmer to create the test, which includes genetics counseling.
- The test also uses a type of sequencing that some experts say all DNA-based health tests should use.
I had the scoop on venture-backed health insurer Bright Health's 2019 enrollment and revenue expectations. Those numbers, and the company's 2018 results based on regulatory filings, suggest that the insurer is managing to double its footprint every year (its first year offering plans was 2017). So far, it's been holding losses steady.
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- Bright Health, the Minneapolis-based health-insurance startup that provides health plans for individuals and families and to seniors, made $145 million in gross revenue in 2018, its second year offering health plans.
- According to state filings, Bright lost $17.5 million in 2018, the same as in 2017. At the same time, it doubled its membership base to more than 24,000 from 12,000.
- Bright Health CEO Bob Sheehy told Business Insider the company expected to jump to about $400 million in revenue for 2019 and had signed on more than 60,000 members.
And if you need a recap of how all the health insurance startups fared in 2018 and what's ahead for 2019 and 2020, I've got you covered.
Bright Health; Alex Wong/Getty; Clover Health; Oscar Health; Shayanne Gal/Business Insider
Bright Health CEO Bob Sheehy, Devoted Health co-founder and executive chairman Todd Park, Clover Health CEO Vivek Garipalli, and Oscar Health CEO Mario Schlosser.
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- Startups have attracted massive funding in the past few years to build new kinds of health-insurance plans - with the help of technology.
- In the past year, four companies in particular - Oscar Health, Devoted Health, Bright Health, and Clover Health - brought in a combined $1.3 billion in funding.
$4 has the story of the race to successfully develop a cancer drug targeting the KRAS mutation.
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- Pharmaceutical companies long wanted to develop a drug that would target KRAS, a common gene mutation seen in cancers. But every effort so far has failed.
- The pharmaceutical company Amgen and biotech Mirati are backing two new drugs that are raising those hopes again, though it's still early days.
- If these experimental products are successful, they could rake in billions in sales and help patients with few treatment options.
Emma also chatted with the top scientist at AveXis, which Novartis acquired last year. He broke down why the Swiss pharma giant was so interested in the gene-therapy maker.
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- The biotech AveXis develops cutting-edge "gene therapy" products that could be powerful and long-lasting medical treatments.
- Swiss drug giant Novartis bought the biotech for $9 billion last year in part because AveXis had figured out how to actually make gene therapies at a big-enough scale, AveXis Chief Scientific Officer Brian Kaspar told Business Insider.
- Manufacturing has emerged as a huge challenge for the booming industry because these products are so new and complex.
And for those just catching up on Thursday's lawsuit - Emma broke down the significance of the dispute between Amgen and Novartis over their new migraine drug, Aimovig.
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- Two drugmakers, Amgen and Novartis, have worked together for years on a new type of cutting-edge migraine drug, Aimovig.
- Now they're involved in a bitter fight. Amgen is trying to get out of the collaboration, while Novartis is suing Amgen to keep it in place.
- Aimovig costs roughly $7,000 a year and was the first of a new category of migraine drugs to get to market. The lawsuit provides a window into how successful it has been and how much Novartis stands to lose in the disagreement.
Out on the West Coast, Erin took a look at a startup coming out of Y Combinator that wants to crack the male birth control market.
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- A new startup called Your Choice Therapeutics aims to bring the first hormone-free male and female birth control drug to market.
- The company debuted at a recent demo day hosted by Silicon Valley tech hub Y Combinator.
- Stacked with researchers from UC Berkeley, the startup has published several basic studies in top-notch
science journals. - Still, the field of male birth control is a tough nut to crack, and the company faces challenges.
For those eager to hear what comes out of the PBM grilling next week in the Senate, we'll be following along. Find $4 and $4 on Twitter, where I'm sure we'll post some live updates.
In the meantime, be sure to send tips, thoughts, and ideas for how you'd use now-HIPAA-compliant Alexa to lramsey@businessinsider.com, or you can find the whole healthcare team at healthcare@businessinsider.com.
- Lydia