Portfolio News

Novartis receives CHMP positive opinion for Enerzair® Breezehaler® (QVM149), a potential first-in-class inhaled LABA/LAMA/ICS combination for uncontrolled asthma

Novartis has announced that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has adopted a positive opinion recommending the approval of its Enerzair® Breezehaler® as a maintenance treatment of asthma in adult patients not adequately controlled with currently recommended maintenance drugs who experienced one or more asthma exacerbations in the previous year. The European Commission (EC) reviews the CHMP recommendation and usually delivers its final decision in about two months. If approved, Novartis’s new medication will be the first asthma treatment...

‘The world will never be the same’: Healthcare executives say telehealth is here to stay beyond the coronavirus

One benefit of the coronavirus pandemic is the increasing usage of telehealth. The virus has forced an end to many non-urgent medical visits, and doctors are connecting with COVID and non-COVID patients virtually. According to Dr. Roy Schoenberg, CEO of telehealth company Amwell, telehealth has gone from a “gratifying new technology” to something that’s taken on a life of its own. Business Insider’s Lydia Ramsey talked with Schoenberg and Dr. David Houghton, the system chair of telemedicine and digital health for Louisiana-based Ochsner Health during a...

The Benefits and Risks of Telehealth Services

The COVID-19 crisis has brought telehealth to the forefront as a way to screen for the disease and to manage care for high-risk patients with chronic illnesses. In fact, among U.S. adults, two-thirds said COVID-19 has made them more willing to try telehealth options. According to the Telehealth Index: 2019 Physician Survey, conducted by telehealth provider Amwell, prior to the pandemic, 20 percent of physicians were using the technology—an increase of 15 percent since 2015. Almost two-thirds of the providers surveyed said they would likely start...

Health Care Payment Reforms and Improved Data Sharing Could Help Contain COVID-19

There is increasing political pressure to “reopen America” and return to normal life as people’s fears about COVID-19 wane—whether that reduction in fear is reasonable or not. But in order to successfully reopen the United States and contain future COVID-19 outbreaks, two things will be needed: more testing and improved data sharing. Two recent papers from the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy outline how those changes should be made. First, quick and lasting changes need to be instituted in how health care providers are paid for...

UPS to Fly Medications by Drone to Florida Retirement Area

United Parcel Service will use drones operated by its airline, UPS Flight Forward, to fill prescriptions from a local CVS for residents of retirement community The Villages in Florida. Delivery by UPS and its drone technology partner, Matternet, to The Villages, may eventually be expanded to include more CVS stores. The Villages is one of the largest retirement communities in the country. Located about an hour north of Orlando, the community has about 135,000 residents. Sumter County, where The Villages is located, has had 171 residents...