InnovationRx: Science Slowdown, A New Covid Variant Surges And Helping Chemo Patients Keep Their Hair

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Is innovation in science and technology slowing down?

That’s the question raised by a new study published in Nature on Wednesday, which finds that major advances in science in technology are coming fewer and farther between than was the case several decades ago. The researchers analyzed 45 million papers and 3.9 million patents between 1949 and 2010. They then assessed the references between citations to these papers and patents to determine whether scientists and investors are discovering major breakthroughs. What they determined is that new research tends to be more incremental and less disruptive in the 21st century compared to immediately after World War II. As a consequence, the study’s authors argue that “it may take longer to make those key breakthroughs that push science forward more dramatically.”

That can seem a little hard to believe in the realm of healthcare, which has seen an explosion of new technologies make it to patients over the past few years. But on the other hand, a lot of the groundwork for those discoveries was laid decades ago – like mRNA vaccines, for instance, which were first proposed in the 1970s. It’s the kind of thing that makes studies like this interesting, but it may take more research and discussion before a definitive conclusion can be made about the rate of scientific progress.

Meet The Entrepreneur Helping Women In Chemo Keep Their Hair

Kate Dilligan spent $8,000 to save her hair during cancer treatments, then spent another $40,000 to see if there was a better way. There was.

Read more here.

Deals Of The Week

DNA Synthesis: Moderna, known for its mRNA Covid vaccine, announced that it’s acquiring Tokyo-based OriCiro Genomics and its cell-free DNA synthesis technologies for $85 million.

Antibody License: Hummingbird Bioscience has entered into a license agreement with Synaffix that will enable the former to develop next-generation antibody-drug conjugates using the latter’s technology. The deal is worth up to $150 million plus royalties.

Gene Therapies: Capsida Biotherapeutics is entering into a multi-year agreement with Eli Lilly subsidiary Prevail Therapeutics to develop genetic medicines. The deal is potentially worth up to $685 million, plus royalties.

Noteworthy

The Food and Drug Administration changed its regulations on Tuesday to make it possible for abortion medication to be dispensed by retail pharmacies.

Life expectancy in the United States is now at its lowest point in 26 years. And that’s not only because of Covid-19–other factors play a role, too.

Amazon’s proposed acquisition of primary care provider One Medical has been cleared by the Oregon Health Authority after concluding the acquisition would not likely lead to price increases.

Ozempic has become increasingly popular due to its weight loss results leading to a shortage that’s impacting its primary use in patients with type two diabetes.

Coronavirus Updates

New research suggests that the reported Covid-19 death toll in Africa is substantially higher than official records indicate. Scientists who examined bodies of the recently deceased at a morgue in Zambia found significantly high levels of Covid-19 infection, and further confirmed that Covid was the cause of many of these deaths through lung biopsies. These findings, which follow up on previous research in the same community, suggest there’s a large underreporting of cases and deaths in African countries due to lack of access to testing. This research isn’t alone – a recent estimate by the World Health Organization found that the global death toll may be nearly three times higher than the official numbers.

Omicron Subvariant XBB.1.5: The Dominant Covid Strain In The U.S. Surges In Major Metro Areas

XBB.1.5 is a highly transmissible subvariant of omicron and is now the dominant Covid variant in the U.S. after just a matter of months.

Read more here.

Other Coronavirus News

The FDA recently approved Tocilizumab (branded Actemra) to treat severe Covid-19. Here’s how it works.

A new study provides further confirmation that vaccines are effective at preventing severe Covid-19 among people suffering from blood cancer.

Nearly 28% of the 524 passenger arrivals from mainland China at Taiwan’s top international airport on Sunday tested positive for Covid–a potential sign of how fast the disease is spreading after the government lifted its “zero Covid” policies.

Across Forbes

$378 Billion Up In Smoke: These 5 Billionaires Lost Record-Breaking Amounts In 2022

Quit Your Job And Move Abroad: 10 Cheapest Places To Live

The Most Anticipated Tech IPOs In 2023: Stripe, SpaceX Headline An Uncertain Class

What Else We are Reading

The Year Ahead in Drugs (Gizmodo)

Mississippi Health Care Faces ‘Looming Disaster,’ Medical Group Warns Lawmakers (Mississippi Free Press)

COVID drug Paxlovid was hailed as a game-changer. What happened? (Nature)