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Merck's CEO on the death of George Floyd
It's been a week of protests here in the US in the wake of George Floyd's death at the hand of a police officer in Minneapolis last week. For the first time in months, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic isn't one of the biggest stories this week.
But then again, everything's connected. An alarmingly disproportionate number of black Americans are dying from the novel coronavirus. The economic fallout caused by the pandemic meant that fewer than half of black Americans were employed as of April.
It's a reality that Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier brought up in an interview with CNBC on Monday, my colleague Dominic-Madori Davis reports.
Frazier is one of four black Fortune 500 CEOs, and he's been speaking out about injustice and inequality, notably in August 2017 leaving President Donald Trump's manufacturing council after Trump failed to explicitly denounce white nationalism when violence erupted in Charlottesville, Virginia.
"What the African American community sees in that videotape is that this African American man, who could be me or any other African American man, is being treated as less than human," Frazier told CNBC on Monday.
You can read the full story here:
George Floyd 'could be me,' says one of America's 4 black Fortune 500 CEOs
Foto: Dr. Robin Armstrong holds a bottle of hydroxychloroquine. Source: AP Photo/David J. Phillip
The march toward good data on potential treatments and vaccines carries on - with a notable stumble
This week, we got some big updates in the effort to determine whether the antimalarial medication hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment for COVID-19.
First: We finally have data from a randomized, controlled trial!
Andrew Dunn reports that the University of Minnesota released results from its randomized controlled trial testing whether hydroxychloroquine can prevent coronavirus.
The trial was the first high-quality look at the medication's use in COVID-19. It focused on people who had been recently exposed to the virus and found that the drug did not help prevent infections.
But: Yesterday, the massive study published in The Lancet on the use of hydroxychloroquine in hospitalized patients was retracted at the request of the study's authors.
Initially published in May, the study had found that the treatments didn't appear to help hospitalized patients hospitalized and instead were associated with heart complications and an increased risk of death.
In the weeks since the study was published, scientists have been raising questions about the paper's statistical analysis and integrity of the data, which are held by a US company called Surgisphere. Ultimately, independent reviewers couldn't get access to the primary data, leading to the authors retracting the study.
The initial publication of the study had been influential. The World Health Organization put a temporary pause on the hydroxychloroquine arm of a trial it's running, but later restarted it.
Over in the push for vaccines, Andrew reports that the Trump administration has prioritized five coronavirus vaccine programs, granting them even more access to government funding. The New York Times initially reported the news, and the Department of Health and Human Services told Andrew, ""We cannot comment on information that is market-moving."
June is poised to be a big month in the development of treatments and vaccines for the novel coronavirus. Andrew listed out all of the important events to keep your eye on as we go through the month - including the start of human testing for some of the *new* treatments for COVID-19.
You can read the full story here:
The race for coronavirus treatments and vaccines is heating up. Here are the 12 most important events to watch for in June, from fresh vaccine data to new antibody drug trials.
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Foto: Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick, Grapevine Health founder and CEO, is advising Joe Biden. Source: Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images
The healthcare pros who are advising the Biden campaign
Meanwhile, Kimberly Leonard has been around Capitol Hill keeping tabs on additional proposed coronavirus legislation.
Senate Republicans, she reports, are pushing for protections for employers who might face coronavirus-related lawsuits. Democrats disagree, arguing that employers should be subject to consequence if working conditions are unsafe.
Last Friday, Kimberly also detailed the struggle doctors and clinics that care for the poor have had in getting coronavirus stimulus cash. Here's why it's taken them so long to get the cash they need to stay open.
Kimberly this week pulled together a list of the 16 power players who are advising former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee on healthcare - including Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick, Grapevine Health founder and CEO, pictured above.
One of them, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel shared with her his plans to replace the Affordable Care Act - which he was involved with designing - and why he's optimistic the pandemic could spur real change.
You can read the full list of power players here:
Meet the 16 power players advising Joe Biden on crucial healthcare issues from the coronavirus pandemic to health insurance reform
Foto: Source: Accel; GV; Andreessen Horowitz; Greylock Partners; Ruobing Su/Business Insider
Raising money in a pandemic
Blake Dodge has been keeping an eye on how healthcare startups are raising money during a pandemic.
This week she spoke to Bright.md, a virtual care startup that just raised $16.7 million. The company shared with her the pitch deck used to win over investors.
You can check out the complete deck here.
She also chatted with two investors at GV about three healthcare companies outside of their portfolio that impress them the most - including now-publicly traded Moderna.
Last week, Blake and tech colleague Tyler Sonnemaker teamed up to ask top venture capitalists which startups are poised to take off amid the pandemic.
During their conversations, the two also asked VCs how they're changing their healthcare strategies in light of what's unfolded over the past few months.
You can read the full story here:
Here's how 11 top VCs like Andreessen Horowitz and GV are changing their healthcare strategies, from bets on telemedicine to virtual clinical trials
We're at an intense moment here in the US, and an interesting moment for the pandemic we're living through. What stories should we be telling? You can find me at [email protected], or you can reach the entire team at [email protected].
- Lydia
