Exclusive: ACR Convergence 2024| Focus Rheums

An official publication of the ACR and the ARP serving rheumatologists and rheumatology professionals

WHO Drug Pricing Talks May Fail to End Secrecy, Activists Fear

Tom Miles  |  

GENEVA (Reuters)—Governments are working on a drug pricing transparency deal at the World Health Organization’s (WHO) annual assembly, but activists said on Thursday they fear crucial costs may be left out, enabling pharmaceutical firms to keep prices high. Campaigners say some drugs are exhorbitantly priced, even though they are often developed with public funding, and…

Social Conflict Seeps into Medical Societies

Tamara Mathias  |  

In U.S. medical society boardrooms, far from legislative chambers, social conflict is forcing board members to deal with laws that raise issues of medical ethics. Take the Association of University Radiologists (AUR), a group of more than a thousand medical school radiology faculty whose stated mission is to “inspire and educate the academic radiology community.”…

U.S. Supreme Court Tosses Ruling Against Merck on Fosamax Osteoporosis Drug

Andrew Chung  |  

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—On May 20, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out a lower court ruling that had revived hundreds of lawsuits accusing Merck & Co. of failing to properly warn patients of debilitating thigh-bone fractures as a result of taking its osteoporosis drug alendronic acid (Fosamax). The nine justices unanimously directed the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit…

Until Broadband Access Improves, Telemedicine Won’t Help Rural Communities

Linda Carroll  |  

(Reuters Health)—Telemedicine has been touted as a solution to the dearth of doctors in rural America. But the same places where residents must drive many miles to see a physician often also have limited broadband access, a new study suggests. About 25% of Americans live in rural communities while a mere 10% of physicians practice…

ACR Hill Visits Yield Key Bill Support; Plus Medicare, Biosimilar Wins

Angus Worthing, MD, FACP, FACR  |  

Greetings from Washington, D.C., where ACR leaders just held more than 100 meetings on Capitol Hill supporting reforms to step therapy and prior authorization, increased reimbursement for dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), solutions to the rheumatology workforce shortage, and rheumatology-specific research at the Pentagon. We’re already hearing great news about our successes: Hours after our visit,…

Recent Trials Investigated Targeted Therapies for Systemic Sclerosis

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SNOWMASS VILLAGE, COLO.—Data from three recent trials in systemic sclerosis (scleroderma) provide information on a number of important issues related to screening and treatment. First presented at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, the phase 2/3 trials assessed the safety and efficacy of targeted agents to treat patients with systemic sclerosis.1-3 In a follow-up presentation at…

The ACR’s & EULAR’s Gout Guidelines Include Treatment Approaches

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SNOWMASS VILLAGE, COLO.—The 2019 ACR Winter Rheumatology Symposium featured a session on gout. Despite a good understanding of its pathogenesis and the many effective therapies to treat it, gout remains a major public health problem in the U.S. Ann K. Rosenthal, MD, Will and Cava Ross professor of medicine and chief of the Division of…