Hello,
Man, what an end to the week. The coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa was found in the US, and we got vaccine results from Novavax, and from Johnson & Johnson's one-shot coronavirus vaccine.
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With the pharma giant tapping out, all eyes have been on the next wave of results, with more than 200 vaccines still in the works.
And as new, more infectious variants have emerged around the world, a big question has been around how they'll interact with vaccines.
On Monday, Moderna said that it is designing a new version of its COVID-19 shot to fight the variant first found in South Africa.
The news was followed shortly after on Friday morning with the long-awaited results from Johnson & Johnson's one-dose vaccine. The company said its vaccine is 66% effective against COVID-19 based on a global trial run in places including the US, Latin American and South Africa.
The results - while not as high as Pfizer and Moderna's - come with some big questions. For one, having only one dose could be a game-changer. J&J shared that its vaccine was 85% effective at preventing severe disease, across all variants, which would be a big help in curbing the pandemic.
Patricia Kelly Yeo spoke to experts in the Dakotas about how they're approaching administering vaccines. For the more rural areas, having a centralized systems has been a big help.
On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal broke the news that Walgreens had found its next top exec.
Shelby Livingston has a full look at what analysts think is ahead for the company with the pick.
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Broussard told her about competing with some of the health-insurance startups taking on the red-hot Medicare Advantage market, like Oscar and Devoted.
Humana for its part has its own answer: a new venture called Author. It launched in 2021 in South Carolina, and already has 15,000 members, Broussard told Shelby.
While health-insurance startups are gaining a bigger foothold in the lucrative Medicare Advantage market, they're still no match for established insurers.
As part of Shelby's conversation with Broussard, they discussed what led Humana to invest heavily in primary care. The conversation turned into one about the future of health insurers, medicine, and Humana itself.
That's especially the case for companies as part of the Alphabet umbrella. She and Alphabet reporter Hugh Langley teamed up over the past week on some dispatches from Google's parent company.
One of the pockets of the healthcare industry tech companies seem to be focused on is monitoring health at home. Blake mapped out how those strategies are playing out so far at Apple, Amazon, Verily, and Google (hint: it's a lot of smart watches).
With that all in mind, I wanted to let you know about an event Megan is moderating on February 10 at 3 p.m. ET. She'll be talking to top healthcare VCs about the year ahead for startups trying to make a dent in the $3.8 trillion healthcare industry.
I hope you all have great weekends! I'll be spending mine outside, probably double-masking to stay extra safe.
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What we know about vaccines and variants - Business Insider India
