Marketing

Mario Murreda

In what could be the most consequential change, President Donald Trump last September issued a memorandum directing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to get rid of what’s known as the “adequate provision” loophole. It allows pharma companies to summarize safety and risk information in TV ads, directing consumers to other sources, such as a website, to get the full information on a medicine.

The FDA, which is part of HHS, is expected to file a formal proposed rule that eliminates the loophole in December.

Getting rid of the provision would shake up pharma advertising, as companies would have to disclose all of a drug’s risks and contraindications directly, in typically short, 30- to 60-second ads. Longer spots are more expensive and pharma companies already spend billions on marketing. The pharma industry spent a combined $6 billion per year on direct-to-consumer advertising from 2016 to 2018, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Beyond potential regulatory changes, healthcare in recent years has been challenged to embrace new advertising channels, such as social media and online video.

Healthcare Brew sat down with Mario Muredda, global CEO of marketing agency Ogilvy Health, to talk about how the agency is responding to such challenges.

Check out the interview here.—MA

      

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Direct care

Getty Images

Employers are under pressure to cover GLP-1s for weight loss, but the research on how these trending medications impact the workforce is still evolving.

A recent paper published in the National Bureau of Economic Research provides one new datapoint for benefits leaders seeking additional information on GLP-1s, specifically with regard to sick leave.

The paper, which hasn’t yet been peer reviewed, analyzed Danish administrative data for two separate groups of patients taking GLP-1s; it compared those who started the medications between August 2018 and December 2019 with those who started four years later, from August 2022 to December 2023.

Over this time period, the amount of long-term sick leave that patients took declined by 17.3%, researchers found. Reduced sick leaves among these GLP-1 patients translated to a 1.3%–1.5% reduction in savings for employers and the government, which pay out sick leave benefits in Denmark.

Get the rest of the story.—CV

      

Tech

Adobe Stock

In a new study published in Science yesterday, researchers at Stanford University and the Arc Institute showed that they used AI to write new viral genomes—first by teaching it to recognize the DNA structure of natural viruses, then asking it for blueprints that don’t exist. The team’s AI models, Evo 1 and Evo 2, trained on a massive library of genetic data, then specifically on viruses related to Phi X-174, a natural virus that only infects the E. coli bacteria.

Keep reading on Tech Brew here.—LC

      

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vital signs

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top healthcare reads.

Stat: 14%. That’s the median premium increase small-group market insurers are proposing for 2027. (Healthcare Finance News)

Quote: “We’ve seen a steady decline in working conditions, mainly staffing. You see staffing go down, while responsibilities go up. So more work with less help. And this sort of came to a breaking point with Covid.”—Chris Eggeman, a Rhode Island CVS pharmacist, on working conditions at the retail pharmacy chain, where workers in three states have voted to approve a strike sanction (Healthcare Dive)

Read: Rural residents are split on whether AI will improve healthcare. (KFF Health News)

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Francis Scialabba

Learn what consumers have to say about sensitive mental health information with AI models, some of which operate outside the healthcare system and don’t have to follow federal patient data protection laws.

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