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The U.S. government has placed a series of multibillion-dollar bets on potential COVID-19 vaccines. But actually getting those vaccines to patients is another story, and now the government has picked a distributor to aid that effort...The Trump administration has tapped Dallas-based distribution giant McKesson to partner with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a national distributor for COVID-19 vaccines...Under a 2016 childhood vaccine deal, the CDC had an option to draft McKesson to distribute vaccines in case of a pandemic, according to a Department of Defense...McKesson's Warp Speed pact comes as the Trump administration looks to flesh out a production and distribution framework for one or more approved vaccines by the end of the year...READ MORE

This past week Minnesota became the second state to reject regulations that effectively ban the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine for use by COVID-19 patients...The decision, which comes two weeks after the Ohio Board of Pharmacy reversed an effective ban of its own, was rightfully praised by local health care advocates...The reversal by (Gov Tim Walz) Walz, a first-term Democrat, clears the way for doctors to prescribe hydroxychloroquine, a drug commonly used to treat malaria and other conditions but one the FDA has declined to recommend for COVID-19 treatment...The politics of hydroxychloroquine are unlikely to cool before November’s presidential election. Yet, if Walz’s decision is any indication, at least some leaders are starting to recognize the ethical dilemma of using the long arm of government to stand between suffering patients and a drug that may have the potential to save them...READ MORE

The world’s biggest drug makers and their trade groups have cut checks to 356 lawmakers ahead of this year’s election — more than two-thirds of the sitting members of Congress…It’s a barrage of contributions that accounts for roughly $11 million in campaign giving, distributed via roughly 4,500 checks from the political action committees affiliated with the companies…The spending follows a long tradition of generous political giving. Major manufacturers typically make hundreds of modest donations to incumbent members of Congress but avoid donating to presidential candidates… pharma’s giving underscores the breadth of its influence and its efforts to curry favor through lobbying and donations to the lawmakers who regulate health care…READ MORE

India's Wockhardt and the Serum Institute of India have lined up new deals to help ramp up the production of two coronavirus vaccines advancing quickly through clinical testing...Wockhardt's 18-month agreement with the U.K. government covers fill/finish work for a vaccine under development by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca. The Serum Institute, meanwhile, entered a wide-ranging pact with Maryland-based Novavax, covering development, production and commercial licensing of its experimental shot...India is already a key supplier to the global drug industry, producing pharmaceutical ingredients, vaccines and other medicines. The two agreements boost the country's role in making the likely billions of needed doses of coronavirus vaccines, a task being shouldered by nations around the world...READ MORE

Potential accuracy issues with a widely used coronavirus test could lead to false results for patients, U.S. health officials warned...The Food and Drug Administration issued the alert...to doctors and laboratory technicians using Thermo Fisher’s TaqPath genetic test. Regulators said issues related to laboratory equipment and software used to run the test could lead to inaccuracies. The agency advised technicians to follow updated instructions and software developed by the company to ensure accurate results...Dr. Albert Ko of Yale’s School of Public Health said the potential accuracy problems have “pretty serious implications” given that Thermo Fisher’s test is used widely both in the U.S. and around the world to screen for coronavirus...The FDA has used its emergency powers to OK more than 200 tests for coronavirus since February. No test is perfect and all are expected to give at least a small percentage of false negatives and false positives...READ MORE

As President Trump wrestles with trying to rein in the high cost of medicine in the United States, he is contemplating an executive order and a proposed rule from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services that would set Medicare Part B prescription drug costs based on an International Pricing Index (IPI). The problem is that the IPI includes countries that utilize socialized medicine and artificial price controls. Here, President Trump is mistakenly focused upon the symptom rather than the cause of the problem.  The symptom is the cost, the cause is the incredible barriers to approval and pernicious middle-men known as Pharmacy Benefit Managers which make medicines more expensive...READ MORE

The good news: The United States has a window of opportunity to beat back Covid-19 before things get much, much worse...The bad news: That window is rapidly closing. And the country seems unwilling or unable to seize the moment...Winter is coming. Winter means cold and flu season, which is all but sure to complicate the task of figuring out who is sick with Covid-19 and who is suffering from a less threatening respiratory tract infection. It also means that cherished outdoor freedoms that link us to pre-Covid life — pop-up restaurant patios, picnics in parks, trips to the beach — will soon be out of reach, at least in northern parts of the country...Unless Americans use the dwindling weeks between now and the onset of “indoor weather” to tamp down transmission in the country, this winter could be Dickensianly bleak, public health experts warn...READ MORE

A New Jersey medical office has filed suit against Cigna, alleging that the insurer failed to pay for diagnostic testing and treatment related to COVID-19 in violation of the CARES Act...Open MRI and Imaging of RP Vestibular Diagnostics claims that Cigna owes it nearly $400,000 in unpaid claims for care related to the novel coronavirus, and that the decisions to decline coverage were "arbitrary."..."The explanations given by [Cigna] for its refusal to make payment include unelaborated denials that the services were rendered as billed, or matched the services billed, as well as the occasional contention that the billing was duplicative," according to the lawsuit. "The grounds for rejecting plaintiff's claims were, upon information and belief, false and invalid."...READ MORE

Barriers to adoption include hearing issues, lack of tech abilities and visual difficulties...While telemedicine may be having a boom, a new study published in JAMA warns that it may not be suitable for everyone...The study, which looked at data from adults over the age of 65, found that over a third of people weren’t ready for video visits...“Although many older adults are willing and able to learn to use telemedicine, an equitable health system should recognize that for some, such as those with dementia and social isolation, in-person visits are already difficult and telemedicine may be impossible,” authors of the study wrote. “For these patients, clinics and geriatric models of care such as home visits are essential.”...READ MORE

Russia..became the first country to approve a coronavirus vaccine, a move that was met with international skepticism and unease because the shots have only been studied in dozens of people...President Vladimir Putin announced the Health Ministry’s approval and said one of his two adult daughters already was inoculated. He said the vaccine underwent the necessary tests and was shown to provide lasting immunity to the coronavirus, although Russian authorities have offered no proof to back up claims of safety or effectiveness...READ MORE