(NEW YORK) — “Margaritaville” singer Jimmy Buffett died on Sept. 1 after a four-year battle with a rare skin cancer.
Buffet’s website revealed he had been diagnosed with Merkel cell carcinoma, but had been able to perform until recently, when his health began to decline.
Here’s what you need to know about MCC, including signs and symptoms, what causes it and how it’s treated:
What is MCC?
Merkel cell carcinoma is much less common than the main types of skin cancer, such as basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma.
MCC is very rare — about 40 times rarer than melanoma — with an estimated 3,000 cases every year in the U.S., according to the Skin Cancer Foundation (SCF).
MCC is a neuroendocrine cancer, meaning it is a cancer of the cells that are connected to nerves, which likely play a role in touch sensation.
It is a rare, aggressive form of cancer that has a high risk of recurring and spreading within two to three years of being initially diagnosed, the SCF says.
What are the symptoms?
The first symptom of MCC is typically a fast-growing, painless tumor on part of the skin that is sun-exposed, according to the National Cancer Institute.
The nodules are usually shiny or pearly and may appear skin-colored in shades of red, blue or purple. However, they may appear dome-shaped or raised, firm or itchy, the Cleveland Clinic says.
A health care provider, such as a dermatologist, may perform a full-body skin exam to look for any abnormal spots as well as an exam of the lymph nodes because the cancer can spread quickly.
If the provider suspects MCC, they may perform a biopsy, which includes removing skin cells so they can be examined for signs of cancer.
What are the stages of MCC?
After a diagnosis is made, a patient’s lymph nodes are often checked because of how quickly MCC can spread to this region, according to the SCF.
The next step is staging to identify how far along the cancer is. For this, the medical team will use the TNM system.
“T” stands for size of the original tumor, “N” for whether it has spread to the lymph nodes and “M” for metastasis, or spread.
Stage 0 indicates MCC cells have been found but not beyond the top layer of skin, the SCF says. Stages 1 and 2 involve smaller and larger tumors, respectively. In stage 2, the tumors may have spread to connective tissue, muscles or bones.
In stage 3, the tumors have spread to the lymph nodes or a lymph vessel between the original tumor and the nodes. In stage 4, the tumors have spread to the lymph nodes, organ or other parts of the body.
How is MCC treated?
Although MCC is rare, it is treatable when found in an early stage.
Depending on the stage of the disease and the patient’s health, treatment involves surgically removing any tumors and potentially chemotherapy, radiation or immunotherapy.
If the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes, a patient may undergo a lymph node dissection, which is a surgical procedure in which some or all of the lymph nodes are removed.
How can I prevent MCC?
Males, those older than age 70, those with weakened immune systems and people with light-colored skin are more likely to develop MCC, according to the American Cancer Society.
Although these risk factors cannot be controlled, there are some steps that can be taken to lower the odds of MCC diagnosis.
This includes undergoing annual skin checks with a dermatologist, performing skin checks at home, lowering exposure to ultraviolet rays either from the sun or tanning beds and to practice sun safety when outdoors, such as covering the skin, wearing sunscreen and using hats or sunglasses.
(NEW YORK) — A 20-month-old boy with a rare genetic mutation was saved earlier this summer by a stranger who donated part of her liver to him.
Logan Salva was diagnosed shortly after his birth with Alagille syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes the bile ducts to be malformed, which can lead to liver failure, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Logan’s family, who live in Ocala, Florida, learned that because of the condition, the toddler would need a liver transplant.
With the waiting list for a liver transplant estimated to be as long as five years, according to the NIH, Logan’s family opted for a living-donor liver transplantation, in which part of a healthy person’s liver is given to a person in need.
Because no one in Logan’s family was a match, they ended up widening their search.
Soon after, Makenzie Beach, a registered nurse in Erie, Pennsylvania, learned she was a perfect match.
Though Beach had no connection to Logan, she said she had no doubts about becoming his donor.
“It was the right thing to do in my mind. It’s what I would want someone to do for my family,” Beach said in an interview shared by UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, where the transplant operation took place. “I was in a position with my health, and I have plenty of support, that I could do this, and I didn’t see any reason why I wouldn’t want to. A month of inconvenience seemed like a very, very small price to pay.”
Earlier this summer, Beach and Logan were scheduled to undergo the transplant, which then had to be delayed for a month after Logan contracted RSV.
“I was a nervous wreck because the first thing I thought was he’s going to lose the donor,” said Rasika Marletto-Salva, Logan’s mom. “That one week of waiting to see what would happen was probably the longest week ever, and then we got the call and it said, ‘Donor is willing to wait and postpone [the transplant] for a month.'”
Finally, on June 8, Beach and Logan underwent the transplant operation, which was deemed a success.
Marletto-Salva said she and her husband immediately saw a difference in their son after the transplant.
The liver damage caused by Alagille syndrome can cause yellowish skin and eyes, which Marletto-Salva said went away once Logan had part of Beach’s liver.
“It’s incredible the change that we saw in him physically, just in his appearance and complexion and everything,” Marletto-Salva said. “It happened within days, with his complexion, and that was just the beginning of it, and then he just started to fill out and look like a normal little kid again.”
According to Cleveland Clinic, only about 5% of people who undergo a liver transplant receive the organ from a living donor.
A living donor is able to donate just a part of their liver because the remaining liver regrows to its normal size and capacity within a few months. The donated portion of the liver also grows and restores normal liver function in the recipient.
Beach said she returned to work just a few weeks after the transplant. She said she had never undergone surgery prior to the transplant.
“I learned so much and it made me such a better nurse to go through this whole experience,” Beach said. “To be a patient was a huge experience, and I needed that, and I’m so grateful for it.”
On Aug. 30, Beach got to meet Logan for the first time.
She said she spoke with Logan and his parents on Zoom while she was in Pennsylvania and Logan and his family were at their home in Florida.
“He looks so good,” Beach said upon seeing Logan for the first time. “He is beautiful.”
Marletto-Salva thanked Beach for all she had done, especially for providing her son with a “wonderful liver.”
“Thank you for such a wonderful liver,” she said. “His recovery, I know that it wouldn’t have been as incredible as it’s been if it wasn’t for the fact that he had you to help him. So, again, thank you so much.”
Both Beach and Marletto-Salva said they hope sharing their story helps make people more aware of the option of living donations for organs like livers and kidneys.
“What amazed me when I was sharing [Logan’s] story, so many people really didn’t know that you could donate a lobe of your liver,” Marletto-Salva said. “So many people have no clue, and that’s one thing that this journey, to me, it’s more than just his story, it’s the fact that it’s helped us inform people as much as possible about the necessity and the importance of living donations.”
(NEW YORK) — More health officials across the U.S. are reporting new cases of the COVID variant BA.2.86.
On Thursday, a genome sequencing team at Houston Methodist Hospital said it had identified the first case in Texas, a member of team wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. On the same day, Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff confirmed that one case has been detected in his state.
These states join Michigan, New York and Virginia, according to health officials and the open global genome sequencing database GISAID.
There have been hundreds of variants of the original SARS-CoV-2 virus that led to the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020, but most eventually disappear.
Public health experts around the world are keeping track of BA.2.86 because of its high number of mutations.
“It is starting to spread here in the United States, as well as in other parts of the world. It’s clearly contagious, as are all of these subvariants of omicron,” Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told ABC News. “As we all know, these COVID viruses are not localized just to one country or another. They don’t need a passport. They’re capable of spreading … and can spread rapidly around the world.”
BA.2.86 was the strain first detected in Denmark on July 24 of this year, then Israel, followed by Michigan in August. It has since been reported in Canada, England, France, Portugal and South Africa, according to GISAID.
It has more than 30 mutations to the spike protein — which the virus uses to attach to and infect cells — and is why Schaffner said he and other experts believe it may be contributing to the increase in COVID hospitalizations in the U.S.
Data updated Monday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found hospitalizations rose 18.8% for the week ending Aug.19.
The most recent data from the CDC shows that EG.5, another offshoot XBB, currently makes up a plurality of COVID cases in the U.S.
“It’s possible [BA.2.86] will make a contribution to what’s out there, but it may not become the dominant strain,” Schaffner said.
This comes as the CDC’s advisory committee gets ready to meet on Sept. 12 to discuss new boosters targeting COVID subvariants. The boosters are expected to become available in mid- to late-September.
While it’s unclear how well the new boosters will protect against BA.2.86, the current vaccine is designed to target XBB, meaning it could provide decent protection against severe disease and hospitalization, Schaffner said.
Over the next couple of weeks, officials will be monitoring how contagious the variant is and how quickly it’s spreading.
One important tool to use could be wastewater data. Wastewater sampling is how officials in New York City detected BA.2.86. Officials said the sample did not come from a local resident, but the variant’s presence in wastewater means it’s undoubtedly circulating.
Public health experts have previously said wastewater tracking is a good early detection tool for monitoring potential future upticks.
(WASHINGTON) — Nursing homes that accept Medicaid and Medicare must adhere to new federally required staffing levels in order to keep receiving taxpayer money, according to a rule announced Friday by the Biden administration that would apply to some 15,000 centers.
It’s an unprecedented move by the federal government aimed at improving care for more than 1.2 million Americans.
Under Biden’s plan, a registered nurse must be on-site at all times and spend a minimum of .55 hours — about 33 minutes — of care per resident a day. A nursing aide would be needed to provide another 2.45 hours of care to each resident.
“Establishing minimum staffing standards for nursing homes will improve resident safety,” Health Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “When facilities are understaffed, residents suffer.”
The new rule, which requires public comment and could take years before it takes effect, is expected to receive pushback from the industry. Nursing homes have long struggled with staffing shortages, exacerbated by pandemic restrictions, vaccine mandates, grueling work and lower pay compared to other health sector jobs.
Biden’s plan would include $75 million in financial incentives for nursing home staff, including tuition reimbursement and scholarships.
The idea of mandated staff levels was a promise Biden made in his 2022 State of the Union, in which the president blamed the industry’s problems on investors who cared more about profits than caring for patients.
“As Wall Street firms take over more nursing homes, quality in those homes has gone down and costs have gone up,” he said. “That ends on my watch. “
“Medicare is going to set higher standards for nursing homes and make sure your loved ones get the care they deserve and expect,” he added.
ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Fifteen years ago, Brian and Kathy Haugen lost their son Taylor while he was playing football for his high school team.
The wide receiver took a hit to his abdomen by two defenders and didn’t get up for a few minutes. After he made it to the sideline, coaches saw he still wasn’t well and called an ambulance.
Doctors later determined Taylor had internal bleeding and he died in the hospital.
“When I heard that his liver had multiple lacerations, I was very concerned that that was not repairable and it wasn’t,” Brian Haugen, a veteran, told ABC News. “And when they finally came to me [they] said, he’s pretty much gone.”
The boy’s parents said they wanted to do something to raise awareness over safety issues and let other parents know there are options to better protect their kids so they started a non-profit group and program, the Youth Equipment for Sports Safety.
The program has helped schools learn about the dangers of abdominal injuries and provided students with newer protective shirts that specifically protect that part of the body.
“It starts with a compression shirt that needs to be tight on the body,” Brian Haugen said. “So even if you were to hit somebody in the ribs with a punch, all they’re going to feel on the side of their body is just pressure.”
The couple said their organization has provided over 7,000 student-athletes with the equipment in 18 states. Recently they helped out Taylor’s school, Niceville High School in Florida.
“It was over 170 players and that was very rewarding for Brian and me,” Kathy Haugen said. “It’s almost a matter of continuing his legacy and continuing the story about what happened.”
(NEW YORK) — Borax, a white, powdery substance, has long been a staple in many households as a cleaning agent and laundry detergent booster.
Now, the substance is making the rounds on social media with some people promoting it as a health booster — a trend that doctors say is dangerous.
“As a doctor, I am telling you, very explicitly, do not ever drink [borax] in any amount,” said Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News chief medical correspondent and a board-certified OB-GYN. “It is a toxin. It is a poison.”
People sharing the trend on social media have suggested drinking or eating borax as a nutritional supplement that can help reduce inflammation and cleanse the body.
According to Ashton, borax is not only unsafe to consume, it is not needed, as the body has its own methods of cleansing itself naturally.
“Our skin, our lungs, our kidneys, our GI tract, our liver are constantly cleansing the body,” Ashton said. “That’s how brilliant the body is in terms of a physical machine, so you don’t really need any other ingredients to do that.”
Ashton added that lifestyle behaviors like exercise, diet, water consumption and smoking can increase or decrease inflammation in the body.
She said healthy behaviors are what people should focus on if they want to reduce inflammation and improve their health.
“The natural things that we can do to augment those processes, like trying to be in an area where there’s clean air, trying to get cardiovascular exercise or being active on a day to day basis, not smoking or inhaling anything into our lungs that is not clean and pure, those things are all smart. They make sense,” Ashton said.
When it comes to a trend like consuming borax to reduce inflammation, Ashton noted, “The risk is significant and there is is zero benefit.”
Exposure to borax — a combination of boron, sodium, and oxygen — may lead to symptoms including eye irritation, trouble breathing, cough and nosebleed, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Darien Sutton, an ABC News medical contributor and a board-certified emergency medicine physician, also noted that at high levels, borax can cause renal failure, kidney failure and death.
“[The symptoms] can start very much as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea,” Sutton said, adding, “I can see how [borax] can look very unassuming and not harmful, but in reality it truly is, especially if you have a higher risk that you may not be aware of until you land yourself in the emergency room.”
Sutton said that when it comes to health advice on social media, it’s important to check and double check sources.
“I do believe that there is value in social media in providing education, but I’m always the one that cross-checks information, makes sure that my source is valid,” Sutton said. “And if you have any suspicion, just try not to do it before you check.”
Both Sutton and Ashton also stressed that people should always first consult with a health care provider.
(NEW YORK) — The FDA has sent warning letters to three formula companies, red-flagging concerns about serious quality control issues at some manufacturing facilities.
The warning letters were all sent Wednesday to Reckitt/Mead Johnson and Perrigo — two long-dominating industry forces — and ByHeart, a relative newcomer to a previously hyperconcentrated market. All three companies had jumped in to ramp up their manufacturing amid an urgent baby formula shortage last year in the wake of major recalls at Abbott, one of the nation’s major suppliers.
ABC News was first to report last summer that several major formula makers other than Abbott had also struggled with contamination concerns, particularly with the bacteria Cronobacter sakazakii — and that those other formula makers had been warned by regulators for subpar conditions and critical equipment deficiencies at the time.
Alongside the publication of new warning letters, the FDA also reassured Americans that it believes prior recalls of baby formula products were “effective in removing the potentially contaminated batches.” The agency said parents and caregivers do not need to discard or avoid purchasing formula at this time.
Cronobacter can be widely found in the environment — but in infants, it can be deadly. Its discovery inside Abbott’s Sturgis, Michigan, plant last year prompted a massive voluntary formula recall in February 2022 after four babies who had consumed Abbott’s formula contracted a Cronobacter infection.
Two of the infants subsequently died, though Abbott maintains no conclusive evidence has proven its formula caused the babies’ illnesses. But Abbott’s ultimate shutdown ricocheted from coast to coast, leaving a serious void in the market and forcing families to face empty shelves and scramble for alternatives for months.
Numerous congressional hearings demanded answers from Abbott and the FDA’s leadership on why more hadn’t been done sooner to identify and fix the issue before it got so bad.
But Abbott has not been alone in facing those operational and contamination concerns.
After previous tests had found Cronobacter, FDA investigators say they have found “significant violations” during inspections ranging from the fall of 2022 through mid-February 2023 inside Reckitt/Mead Johnson, Perrigo and ByHeart facilities, including substandard processes or conditions that could help more pathogens fester.
“For over 130 years, Perrigo has been committed to meeting the needs of consumers, parents and caregivers—and the quality and safety of our products is our highest priority,” Perrigo said in a statement obtained by ABC News. “We have rigorous procedures throughout our infant formula manufacturing processes and every batch of infant formula is tested to ensure it meets stringent nutritional, safety, quality, and U.S. Food & Drug Administration regulatory requirements.”
“The letter Perrigo received pertained only to its infant formula manufacturing facility located in Wisconsin, which Perrigo acquired from Nestle on November 1, 2022, the statement continued. “This letter relates to a routine inspection by the FDA which began on March 6, 2023 and references FDA’s March 8, 2023 communication to the infant formula industry outlining its evolving regulatory expectations. We are in the process of carefully reviewing FDA’s letter and plan to work closely with the agency.”
The new warning letters detail some of the same concerns that ABC News was first to report last year. And though the companies took corrective actions, the agency said more is needed after these recent inspections.
The letters describe multiple occasions where the FDA says finished formula tested positive for Cronobacter and instances where the companies had failed to sufficiently investigate the contamination’s source and prevent it from happening again.
In some instances, the companies failed to consider “other potential sources of contamination,” the FDA said.
In Reckitt/Mead Johnson’s letter, investigators note the company’s “root cause analysis did not consider other potential sources of contamination, such as a history of several internal cracks of varying lengths identified throughout your dryer system, multiple water leaks at your facility, or the standing piles of spilled infant formula product at your facility,” emphasizing that the company’s investigation “did not consider all potential sources of contamination.”
FDA’s findings at Reckitt’s facility came amid months where the company had also found Cronobacter in “high and critical hygiene zones” of their facility’s environment — from July 2022 to February 2023.
Reckitt also found Cronobacter in their finished formula product at multiple facilities in the fall of 2022.
In February 2023, as ABC reported at the time, Reckitt issued a voluntary recall for two of their batches.
In a statement to ABC News, Reckitt/Mead Johnson Nutrition said “the safety of babies is of the utmost importance to us and we can confirm that all of our infant formula products continue to meet the highest FDA standards for safety and quality. “The FDA’s communication is part of its enhanced regulatory oversight and does not relate to any new concerns or issues, as they reflect findings from previous inspections. The company added that it is “confident in the rigor of the programs we have in place to ensure the safety of every infant formula product we ship.”
In the new warning letter sent to Perrigo, the FDA details that Cronobacter had been identified in finished formula products on multiple occasions by the company: in two products “during a continuous production campaign that ran from Oct. 23, 2022, to Nov. 2, 2022,” another that ran from Jan. 3, 2023, through Jan. 18, 2023, in which another batch formula product tested positive, and another that ran from March 26, 2023 through April 5, 2023, in which another batch of product tested positive.
FDA investigators say they also found Cronobacter from swabbing their facility’s environment this March — noting in their letter that this “was not the first time” they had found it at that facility.
“The detection of C. sakazakii in your facility across multiple independent inspections is significant in that it demonstrates your sanitation procedures have been inadequate to significantly minimize or prevent the presence of C. sakazakii in your facility,” the FDA writes to Perrigo. “Once C. sakazakii is established in a production area, personnel or equipment can facilitate the pathogen’s movement and contamination of food contact surfaces and finished product.”
In March 2023, Perrigo also issued a voluntary recall for some of their formula due to potential Cronobacter contamination, a recall which the FDA says they believe was “effective.”
Cronobacter was also found in ByHeart’s finished formula which they flagged in October 2022. They issued a voluntary recall in December 2022, blaming the positive sample on their “third-party packaging facility.”
In their warning letter to ByHeart, the FDA also notes that various leaks were found in the facility, one in the skylight installed on the roof in June 2022, and another in a worn sealant “around the louver” in a Dryer Tower in December 2022 after “heavy wind and rain.”
During environmental swabbing conducted on the same day the leak was identified, four swabs detected Cronobacter in the dryer tower.
“Despite having a leak in December and then detecting Cronobacter spp. via environmental swabbing following the leak, the root cause analysis never considered or evaluated whether the leak may have contributed to the contamination,” the FDA’s letter said.
“We commend the FDA for its efforts to unify the industry’s ongoing work to elevate manufacturing standards and support the Agency’s enhanced oversight,” a ByHeart spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News. “Providing safe and high-quality infant formula continues to be our top priority and we can assure our customers that no distributed ByHeart product has tested positive for contaminants. There is no disruption to ByHeart’s manufacturing and we currently have three production plants across the US that are operating to meet the demand for our formula.”
The companies now have 15 days to respond to the warning letters.
(RICHMOND, Va.) — Health officials in Virginia have announced the state is experiencing an outbreak of rare, but serious meningococcal disease.
Twenty-seven cases have been identified since June 2022, which is three times higher than the expected number of cases during this period, according to the Virginia Department of Health. Of those cases, five people have died from complications due to the disease.
Most of the patients are Black or African American adults between ages 30 and 60, but no other information on the patients was available, the health department said. Twenty-six of the 27 patients were not vaccinated against meningococcal disease.
No common risk factor has been identified, but the bacteria share common genetic sequencing, according to the VDH.
Infections have been reported in eastern, central and southwest Virginia, with most being in the eastern part of the state. That leaves the department to initially believe it was a regional outbreak when it was first announced in September 2022.
Despite the outbreak, officials say the risk to the general public in Virginia is low.
Meningococcal disease is a rare illness caused by the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are six types of the bacteria that cause most diseases around the world, with type Y being responsible for the Virginia outbreak.
The bacteria are spread by coming into contact with an infected person’s saliva or spit, such as through coughing, kissing, sharing items or sneezing near someone’s face. Sometimes the bacteria also spread through prolonged general contact with an infected person.
The illness can often turn severe and lead to meningitis, which is an inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord, or septicemia, a bloodstream infection.
Symptoms included headache, fever, stiff neck, nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light and — if the disease gets into the bloodstream — a dark purple rash.
Meningococcal disease can be difficult to diagnose because many symptoms resemble other illnesses, the CDC said. To diagnose the disease, samples of blood or fluid near the spinal cord are collected and sent to a laboratory to detect bacteria.
Antibiotics can treat meningococcal disease, but treatment needs to be started as soon as possible to reduce the risk of complications, according to the CDC.
Between 10 and 15 in 100 people with meningococcal disease die and one in five have long-term disabilities, including deafness, loss of limb or libs, brain damage and nervous system problems, the CDC said.
The Virginia Department of Health is recommending that during the outbreak, and in general, residents not share personal items, practice good hand hygiene, avoiding contact with those who are sick and to seek care immediately if they are experiencing symptoms of meningococcal disease.
The department also advised that teenagers receive the meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MenACWY) as scheduled at 11 or 12 years old and a booster dose at 15 or 16 years old. The MenACWY vaccine protects against the three types of bacteria that most commonly cause meningococcal disease in the U.S.
The Virginia Department of Health did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — Every month, Dawn LaGuerre has to decide which bills she’s going to pay or if she needs to cut back on groceries to be able to afford her monthly medications.
The 63-year-old from Utica, New York — 90 miles northwest of Albany — takes multiple drugs including Januvia and Novalog to manage her type 2 diabetes. Her husband, David, 61, also takes Januvia.
But her prescriptions have increased from $100 monthly to between $350 and $450 a month, leaving the couple to make tough financial decisions.
“Oftentimes, we do have to decide to pay a bill later, whether it’s my water bill or my electric bill, because I need those medications,” she told ABC News. “And without them, my health would be even more severely compromised. I can’t do without them…We really don’t have any discretionary money, and it’s putting us in the hole.”
LaGuerre’s circumstance is not uncommon — lowering prescription drug costs has become a bipartisan rallying cry for voters over the last few years. But this week, that movement saw a key victory that might bring some relief to LaGuerre and millions of other Americans.
For the first time, the Biden administration announced Tuesday that it would begin direct price negotiations on 10 widely-used drugs under Medicare, an attempt to drive down out-of-pocket costs for seniors.
The list includes medications for diabetes, heart failure and blood cancers including Eliquis, Enbrel, Entresto, Farxiga, Fiasp, Imbruvica, Jardiance, Stelara and Xarelto, as well as Januvia and NovoLog.
According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Medicare recipients who take any of the 10 drugs paid $3.4 billion in out-of-pocket costs in 2022.
President Joe Biden said the negotiated prices — which will go into effect in 2026 — will help lower costs for nine million Americans. The administration also plans to negotiate more drug prices through 2029, eventually expanding to 60 different medications.
LaGuerre said she feels the policy is throwing her and her family a lifeline.
“I’ll be having a little bit more money to pay toward those food items that we have to decide on, and I’ll be able to pay a lot of my bills with a lot more regularity without skipping them,” she said. “It’s really a big deal and for us, that would really be monumental because it would give us some kind of hope.”
The policy would also help people like David Mitchell, the founder of the group Patients for Affordable Drugs, and a cancer patient who relies on one of the drugs named Tuesday for lifesaving treatment.
He told ABC News he takes Eliquis, which treats and prevents blood clots. Annually, it costs $7,000 out of pocket, and since he pays so much money for other drugs, he actually buys a generic version from Canada that costs $1,700 per year.
“For people like me who take a drug like Eliquis, or a blood thinner, the potential savings could be thousands of dollars a year, and millions of people take Eliquis in this country,” he said.
Pharmaceutical companies have one month to decide whether they want to participate in negotiations, or risk facing a financial penalty. The penalty would be lifted, but only if the medication Is removed from the Medicare program completely.
Many of the drugmakers — including Bristol-Meyers Squibb, which manufactures Eliquis, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, which manufactures Xarelto and Merck, which manufactures Januvia — have all filed lawsuits, arguing the program violates the First and Fifth amendments.
In statements, several companies argued that lowering drug prices would hurt innovation and new drug development.
“The Inflation Reduction Act’s price-setting provisions are bad policy that will stifle the U.S. biopharmaceutical sector’s research and development, and have potentially devastating consequences for the millions of patients who need new therapeutic options,” Merck said in a statement to ABC News.
In fact, their innovation is in his best interest, Mitchell said, arguing that he wouldn’t push for price negotiations if he believed it would alter his treatment success.
“I have an incurable blood cancer, meaning no drug works forever for me,” Mitchell said. “I need them to invent new drugs that are different and have a different mechanism of action if I’m going to live as long as I hope to. That’s a fact. I would not cut off my nose despite my face. I’m not interested in dying from cancer.”
LaGuerre said if these medication prices don’t get negotiated down and those new prices don’t go into effect, she’s running out of options for how to pay for her medications and her living expenses.
“Somewhere down the road, I’m gonna have to make an incalculable decision, I may have to move out of my house, and try to find a cheaper apartment just so that me and my husband can afford our medicines,” she said. “I can’t afford to do without them. I think there’s enough skin in the game for [pharmaceutical companies] to be able to negotiate those Medicare costs so that all of us can have a chance at living.”
Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The overdose reversal drug Narcan will be available for over-the-counter purchase starting in September, its manufacturer announced Wednesday.
Biotech company Emergent BioSolutions Inc. said the nasal spray has been shipped to pharmacies, drugstores and grocery stores as well as online retailers with a suggested price of $44.99 for a two-dose box.
It comes five months after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Narcan to be distributed without a prescription — a milestone advocates have said will make it easier to save lives amid the ongoing opioid epidemic that claimed more than 100,000 American lives in 2021.
The majority of these deaths were due to opioids, particularly synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, which is about 100 times stronger than morphine.
According to Emergent BioSolutions, approximately one life was lost to an opioid overdose every seven minutes in the U.S. last year.
Narcan comes in 4-milligram doses and is sprayed directly into the nostrils of someone experiencing an opioid overdose. The main ingredient in the medication — naloxone — blocks the effects of opioids and can quickly restore breathing.
Anyone at risk or who knows someone at risk for an opioid overdose should carry naloxone or keep it in their home, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends. It is safe for bystanders to administer the drug to anyone who appears to be experiencing an overdose and will not hurt them if they are not actually overdosing, the CDC said.
While nearly 17 million doses were distributed in the U.S. in 2021 — mostly through local health departments, first responders, schools and other organizations — harm reduction groups have been pushing for easier access to naloxone, particularly in underserved communities.
“A steadfast commitment to expanding access to naloxone has always been at the forefront of our work to help save lives and we’re proud to bring NARCAN Nasal Spray to many, many more places,” Paul Williams, senior vice president of products business at Emergent BioSolutions, said in a statement.
Walgreens told ABC News Narcan will be available in stores and online as soon as Sept. 5, with nationwide availability on Sept. 7, and that it will be sold at the suggested retail price. Walmart said it will be available the first week of September and Kroger Health told ABC News it will be carrying Narcan but did not give a date for when it will be available.
ΑBC News has also reached out to CVS Health and Rite Aid to see if or when Narcan will be made available at their stores.
