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Justice Department issues ‘potentially devastating’ memo on Americans with Disabilities Act
Last week, the Trump administration released a memo calling to overturn landmark disability laws and court rulings that prioritize people with disabilities receiving care while living in the community rather than in nursing homes and other facilities. The memo, released by the Justice Department in response to a White House investigation, does not change existing law. But it shows the government’s stance on the rights of people with disabilities, especially their right not to be sequestered in institutions to receive the care they need, legal experts told STAT’s O. Rose Broderick.
“Fiat money can’t change the law, but I think[this memo]signals a frontal attack on a fundamental tenet of the disability rights movement,” said Jennifer Love, director of the National Health Law Program’s disability practice area. Read Rose’s article to learn more.
Relatedly, a new first opinion essay takes issue with the all-or-nothing approach to the “medically frail” exemption in the new Medicaid work requirement. Soon, people will either have to work 80 hours a month or claim they are incapable of working at all. “This single change could chill employment for people with disabilities while stripping coverage from the very people the framers claimed to protect,” the authors write. read more.
HHS sent drug to Ebola clinical trial
The Department of Health and Human Services has confirmed that a monoclonal antibody showing great promise in treating Ebola has been sent for use in clinical trials. MBP-134, a monoclonal antibody, is manufactured by San Diego-based MappBio with funding from BARDA, which owns the doses. An HHS spokesperson declined to say how many people were set aside for the clinical trial. This monoclonal antibody has already undergone phase 1 safety testing. The WHO, one of the trial’s sponsors, said the trial plan was being reviewed by ethics committees and regulatory authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.
Previously, HHS said some of the available doses of MBP-134 would be sent to Kenya for possible use in isolation and early treatment facilities being built by the United States to house Americans who may have been exposed to Ebola in Ebola endemic areas. The Trump administration has made clear that it does not want to send anyone infected with or exposed to Ebola to the United States for isolation and treatment. If an American becomes infected at the site, they will be sent to an undisclosed European country for treatment. Meanwhile, as of yesterday, the number of confirmed infections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo reached 1,048, with 267 deaths. — Helen Branswell
FDA launches pilot program to speed up early-stage clinical trials
US drug development news: Federal health officials yesterday announced a pilot program to speed up early-stage clinical trials in hopes of encouraging US-based trials and countering China’s dominance in biotechnology.
The pilot is part of HHS’s “department-wide” effort to increase U.S. involvement in clinical trials, although details about what other agencies will do are limited. Read more about what STAT’s Chelsea Cirruzzo and Lizzy Lawrence know so far.
Who is the mysterious patient given an experimental weight loss drug?
Millions of Americans are eagerly awaiting Eli Lilly’s powerful new drug called letaltortide, which has demonstrated bariatric surgery-level weight loss. But, as STAT’s Lizzie Lawrence learned, one mystery patient managed to skip the wait.
The patient was 79 years old in April, and a request was made to obtain the drug through the FDA’s compassionate use pathway. This route is typically given to patients with severe, life-threatening conditions who want to try experimental treatments. This patient had been taking another Lilly obesity drug for a year and experienced only moderate weight loss.
Experts who met with Lizzy repeatedly questioned why Lilly would offer compassionate use to a single patient when obesity is such a widespread condition. Pharmaceutical companies often establish these programs with large patient populations, but this is nothing new for a large company like Lilly. So what’s going on here? read more.
Suicide treatment disparities emerge during the transition to adulthood
Approximately one in eight young people between the ages of 18 and 25 has considered suicide, planned to end their life, or attempted suicide. Among them, white youth are far more likely to receive all types of mental health treatment than Asian, black, or Latino youth, according to a study published yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics.
Researchers discovered these disparities by analyzing data from the 2022-2023 federal population-based survey on drug use, mental health, and behavioral health. About half of white youth received some type of treatment, compared to 28% of Asian youth, 29% of black youth, and 35% of Latino youth reported suicidal thoughts, plans, or attempts.
People in this age group, known as “young people in transition,” are particularly prone to suicide, but they also tend to receive the lowest rates of mental health treatment compared to other age groups. Policy solutions should prioritize continuity of insurance during the transition to adulthood and universal screening in nontraditional settings, the authors write.
An AI model that predicts seven forms of structural heart disease based on electrocardiogram images received major FDA clearance this month. The program, called EchoNext, will be sold directly to hospitals that license OpenEvidence, a medical evidence search engine used by hundreds of thousands of clinicians.
Investors and cardiologists alike see potential in the basic idea of using AI to screen for disease in electrocardiograms. But questions remain as to whether there will actually be meaningful improvements in health outcomes. Read more about the technology from STAT’s Mario Aguilar.
what we are reading
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One in three Americans uses chatbots for health advice. These six patients explain why, The Washington Post
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A New Yorker’s hard-core drinker accidentally quits drinking
- Opinion: Repealing birthright citizenship could be a public health disaster, STAT
- When diets don’t work: Parents of elementary school students turn to Wegovy, Wall Street Journal
- Definium LSD therapy helped patients with major depression in late-stage STAT trial
