Good morning, everyone, and welcome to another working week. We hope the weekend respite was relaxing and invigorating, because that oh-so familiar routine of online meetings and deadlines has returned. But you knew this would happen, yes? After all, the world continues to spin no matter how we try to slow it down. So to cope, we are firing up the coffee kettle and brewing cups of stimulation. Our choice today is maple bourbon. Please feel free to join us. Meanwhile, here is the latest menu of tidbits to help you get started on your journey, which we hope is meaningful and productive. Have a smashing day, and do keep in touch. …
Samantha Budd Haeberlein, the Biogen senior executive who supervised the development and controversial approval of the Alzheimer’s treatment Aduhelm, left the company last week, STAT reports. Her departure was characterized as voluntary, but coincides with plans Chris Viehbacher, the new Biogen chief executive officer, has to shake up the ranks after Aduhelm became a costly commercial failure. She left just two weeks after Billy Dunn, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration official with whom she worked closely on Aduhelm’s review, abruptly left the agency. From 2019 until the drug was approved in 2021, the pair was in frequent contact as Biogen and the FDA worked in concert to push Aduhelm forward.
Novo Nordisk spent millions of dollars in just three years on an “orchestrated PR campaign” in the U.K. to influence acceptance of its weight loss injections, The Guardian writes. As part of its strategy, Novo Nordisk paid $26 million to health organizations and health care professionals who in some cases went on to praise the treatment without always making clear their links to the firm. Among the vocal champions of the Wegovy jabs was a clinical expert who gave evidence to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, a government cost-effectiveness watchdog agency, and others who publicly praised the so-called “skinny jabs” as a “gamechanger.”
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