Insider's top healthcare stories for the week ending December 3 – Business Insider
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Hello,
Welcome to Insider Healthcare. I’m healthcare editor Leah Rosenbaum, and this week in healthcare news:
If you’re new to this newsletter, sign up here. Comments, tips? Email me at lrosenbaum@insider.com or tweet @leah_rosenbaum. Let’s get to it…
A lot of news came out this week about the new Omicron COVID-19 variant, a strain of the virus with several mutations that are making scientists very nervous.
Drug companies are already preparing for the worst; Andrew Dunn spoke with experts, including Pfizer’s top scientist Mikael Dolsten, about how pharma companies are already responding to this new threat.
Recently, we learned that there have already been several confirmed cases of the Omicron variant in the US — and there could already be up to 2,000 cases, according to an expert that spoke with health correspondent Hilary Brueck.
We don’t yet know though how Omicron will fare against our current COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, but scientists are racing to find out.
And speaking of COVID treatments: this week, an FDA panel narrowly recommended the first pill to treat COVID-19.
Mohana Ravindranath spent time talking to the leaders of 8 of the largest healthcare systems across the country. She asked them all about the future of health — and also about what technologies are currently overhyped.
She learned:
Drug-industry middlemen have reorganized the drug supply chain, Shelby Livingston reports.
Several of these companies are joining forces to get better deals from drugmakers — but they are also driving up costs for patients.
It creates a convoluted system full of secrets, money and medicine.
More stories that kept us busy this week:
-Leah
