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Welcome to
- Google's healthcare team is reorganizing;
- Doctors and drugmakers disagree on when we might need coronavirus booster shots;
- What a lawsuit against Centene reveals about pharmaceutical middlemen.
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Just a heads up that there will be no newsletter tomorrow, in observance of Juneteenth. I'll be back in your inbox first thing Monday.
EXCLUSIVE: Google is downsizing its health team and moving employees to Fitbit as part of a major reorganization
- Google's young health division is splintering, according to employees and an email seen by Insider.
Google Health teams working on sensors, search, and health records are moving to Fitbit and Search.- It's yet another growing pain for a big tech company that's still finding its voice in healthcare.
One year or 5? Doctors and drug companies increasingly disagree about when we'll need COVID-19 booster shots
- Booster shots may not be medically necessary for another one to five years, disease experts wager.
- But pharmaceutical companies are prepping to distribute boosters to the US before the end of 2021.
- In either case, boosters probably won't require the same urgency as initial vaccines do.
A lawsuit against the largest provider of government health insurance gives a rare glimpse into how pharmacy benefit managers can make money
Centene just settled litigation over the practices of its pharmacy benefit managers, orPBMs .- As part of the $88 million settlement in Ohio, the Ohio attorney general's complaint was unsealed.
- The complaint offers a rare glimpse at how some PBMs make money.
More stories we're reading:
- CureVac's COVID-19 shot just failed in a large trial, a major setback for the Gates-backed biotech (Insider)
- Digital health companies are outgrowing highly specific markets. One expert says that's fueling the consolidation wave overtaking the industry. (Insider)
- Inside Apple's health ambitions, which have struggled to take off (The Wall Street Journal)
- Bernie Sanders tells us he's 'delighted' Ron DeSantis cribbed his idea to import prescription drugs from Canada (Insider)
- Mississippi is suing three drugmakers over insulin prices (Endpoints News)
- Lydia