Virginia Commonwealth University

TUESDAY, Feb. 18, 2025 -- There was a notable decrease in common ophthalmic procedures among Medicare beneficiaries during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published online Feb. 6 in JAMA Ophthalmology . Raziyeh Mahmoudzadeh, M.D., from the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, and colleagues estimated changes in the rates of the 10 most prevalent ophthalmic procedures among Medicare beneficiaries during the COVID-19 pandemic in a retrospective U.S. cross-sectional study. The analyses included 3,879,533 procedure entries in 2019 and 3,181,439 entries in 2020. The researchers found that from 2019 to 2020, there was a −17.9 percent overall decrease in the rates of the 10 ophthalmic procedures. The largest reduction was seen for laser peripheral iridotomy, while the smallest decrease was seen for eye drug injections (−43.6 and −1.5 percent, respectively). There was a reduction of −23.0 percent in cataract surgery . Regionally, the greatest reductions in cataract surgery occurred in the Northeast (−27.9 percent). "Our results demonstrated an overall decrease of 17.9 percent in the rates of the 10 most prevalent ophthalmic procedures during the pandemic," the authors write. "This reduction appears less substantial compared with other fields of medicine, like ear nose and throat, where up to 98 percent reduction in volume of surgical procedures was reported." One author disclosed financial ties to Regeneron, Astellas, Apellis, and Allergan.

TUESDAY, Feb. 12, 2025 -- A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to restore access to public health websites that were removed or modified in response to a Trump administration executive order on gender. The order, issued Feb. 11 by U.S. District Judge John Bates , grants a temporary restraining order requested by Doctors for America , a nonprofit group that sued the administration over the website removals. The affected sites, some of which have been online for decades, contain public health information on HIV prevention, youth health risks, fertility treatments and more. The ruling states that the two health agencies removed the sites without explanation and likely violated federal law. “By removing long relied upon medical resources without explanation, it is likely that … each agency failed to ‘examine the relevant data and articulate a satisfactory explanation for its action,’ ” Bates wrote. He ordered the CDC and FDA to restore access by the day's end Tuesday, a process that staff members were scrambling to complete. “It was a double waste for us because we took them offline, put some of them back, edited others and now are putting it back again,” a federal health official who wanted to remain anonymous told The Washington Post. The removed sites included: Some researchers also reported that scientific studies on racial health disparities were removed, The Washington Post reported. Lucia Leone , an associate professor of community health and health behavior at the University of Buffalo, said in a social media post that a 2017 study she co-authored on food access in low-income communities was taken down, likely because it contained the word “diverse." Physicians and researchers were alarmed about the removals. “Restoring access to this vital data is welcome news, if it happens," Dr. Steven Woolf , director emeritus and professor of family medicine and population health at Virginia Commonwealth University, told The Washington Post. “But this list doesn’t cover everything that has gone missing.” Some doctors who treat HIV patients said they were already struggling without the CDC’s HIV and PrEP guidelines. “We recently had an outbreak of Chlamydia at the high school where I work and are actively meeting with school leadership to address increasing our efforts around STI testing and prevention,” Dr. Stephanie Liou , who screens students for sexually transmitted infections and prescribes PrEP, said in a court declaration. “Without these crucial CDC resources, I am not able to do my job to help address this urgent situation that is affecting our youth.” Dr. Reshma Ramachandran , assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine, said the CDC’s contraceptive guidance for providers was also removed, The Washington Post reported. “I take care of female patients of reproductive age, many of whom have other medical conditions making it imperative to select the appropriate contraceptive that would not interfere with their existing comorbidities and other medications,” Ramachandran explained. The lawsuit argues that the CDC and FDA violated federal law by failing to follow correct procedures for removing public information. The Justice Department, defending the Trump administration, claimed Doctors for America lacked legal standing to challenge the actions. It said the sites could still be accessed through an online archive called the Wayback Machine, The Washington Post reported. “The doctors just prefer not to search," Justice Department attorney James Harlow argued in a legal filing. "But one’s ‘desire’ for information from a preferred government source and in a preferred format does not establish informational injury when the content is otherwise obtainable.” Bates' 21-page opinion rejected that argument, ruling that the health agencies’ actions would harm “everyday Americans, and most acutely, underprivileged Americans, seeking healthcare." “If those doctors cannot provide these individuals the care they need (and deserve) within the scheduled and often limited time frame, there is a chance that some individuals will not receive treatment, including for severe, life-threatening conditions,” Bates wrote. Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

Novo Nordisk and Viking Therapeutics took to the annual Liver Meeting to make the case for their experimental MASH drugs as they chase Madrigal Pharmaceuticals’ first-ever approved treatment for the disease. Novo on Tuesday detailed secondary endpoints from topline Phase 3 data announced earlier this month. The Danish drugmaker reported that 32.8% of patients receiving semaglutide showed both resolution of fat buildup in the liver and improvement of fibrosis, compared to 16.2% of patients given placebo. It’s a statistically significant difference for an endpoint that is considered a harder bar to hit than improving steatohepatitis and fibrosis independently without worsening the other. (MASH, or metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, is also referred to as NASH.) “These initial data shared at The Liver Meeting demonstrated that semaglutide 2.4 mg slowed MASH progression and reversed existing liver damage,” Arun Sanyal, the study’s principal investigator and chief of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at Virginia Commonwealth University, said in a statement. Novo also said that patients who underwent treatment with semaglutide showed improvements in liver enzymes like alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST). Those enzymes help break down proteins and amino acids into energy, and abnormal levels can be a sign of liver damage. About 88% of patients given semaglutide remained on the drug at week 72, and 75% of those patients were on the 2.4 mg dose. Analysts at Leerink Partners called the tolerability profile a “‘best case’ clinical trial experience with respect to persistence.” Still, they doubled down on their belief that the data didn’t represent a “functional cure” for MASH and combo therapies are likely the future standard of care. In a note to investors, TD Cowen’s Ritu Baral wrote that by the time Novo is expected to gain widespread insurance coverage for semaglutide in MASH in 2027, Madrigal’s Rezdiffra “will have already established its place as a backbone treatment for NASH.” Viking Therapeutics, which is developing obesity therapies, added final Phase 2b data for its MASH candidate to the pile of readouts at the meeting. The company said Tuesday that VK2809 hit its primary endpoints, demonstrating statistically significant improvements in liver fat reduction compared to placebo. The average relative reduction among treated patients ranged from 37% to 55% at week 52, and the percentage of patients who had at least a 30% reduction in liver fat was 64% to 88% across the dose groups. But the oral drug was not statistically significant across all four doses when it came to improving fibrosis without worsening MASH, only the two highest doses of 5 mg and 10 mg. Those doses are also the ones that demonstrated statistically significant improvements at both MASH resolution and fibrosis improvement compared to placebo. The company in June shared a topline histological readout . Leerink analysts wrote that Viking “continues to evaluate next steps for their NASH program” and would likely advance it into Phase 3 with a partner.