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Q&A: Lessons from the HHS secretary who ran Bush’s bird flu response

STAT

When he first heard about the avian flu outbreak in 2005, he had been secretary of health and human services in George W. WASHINGTON — Mike Leavitt is in the small club of government officials who’ve led an avian flu response. The experience is still fresh in his mind nearly two decades later. Read the rest…

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STAT+: GLP-1s lower risk of 10 obesity-associated cancers, study shows

STAT

million patients with type 2 diabetes from 2005 to 2018 who were prescribed GLP-1s, insulin, or metformin. New research finds that the GLP-1 class of drugs — glucagon-like peptide receptor agonists — is more effective in mitigating the risk of 10 obesity-associated cancers than its type 2 diabetes drug alternatives.

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Opinion: DNA data security requires robust protections, not rhetoric

STAT

But the legislation’s misguided approach would single out a small number of companies, including the California-based company I founded in 2005, Complete Genomics , despite the fact that we have no access to such data. That is a noble goal.

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STAT+: In another pharma shakeup, Sanofi loses top executive known for overhauling R&D

STAT

He was the eighth most highly-cited researcher in life sciences and medicine for the decade of 1995 to 2005, according to the Thomson Corporation. Prior to that, he was the CEO of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., and a leading researcher in cell biology. Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…

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STAT+: Bayer agrees to $40 million settlement over kickbacks and downplaying drug safety risks

STAT

To motivate prescribing, Bayer illegally paid kickbacks to physicians, according to the lawsuit filed in 2005 by a former Bayer marketing employee (see here and here ). One lawsuit alleged that the company deliberately downplayed risks and overstated benefits of Trasylol, which is used to control bleeding in certain heart surgeries.

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We have a cure for hepatitis C — so why aren’t more people getting treatment?

STAT

In 2005, Nick Voyles was diagnosed with hepatitis C after being released from five years of incarceration. A nurse told him he had only six months to live. He was prescribed a drug cocktail, a combination of interferon and ribavirin, that proved ineffective and gave him severe side effects. recalled.

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STAT+: Elevance’s embattled bid to buy Louisiana’s Blues plan was a stretch to begin with

STAT

The last time Elevance successfully brought a Blues plan under its giant investor-owned wing was in late 2005 , when it acquired New York City-based WellChoice. Lawmakers in August urged Blue Cross to put the deal on ice, and last week, Louisiana’s attorney general hinted at legal action if the company didn’t do so.

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