Bill would ban corporate ownership of physician practices; HIV injections outperform daily pills in adolescents; repurposed tapeworm drug could ease endometriosis — Morning Medical Update

Bill would ban corporate ownership of physician practices

Hospitals and nonprofit providers would be exempt from the ban.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) and four other Democratic lawmakers introduced the Stop Corporate Takeovers of Physicians Act Sept. 16. The bill would bar private equity firms, insurers and other for-profit corporations from owning or controlling medical practices. Modeled on a 2025 Oregon law, it would also stop management services organizations from controlling practices through "friendly" physician owners and void most noncompete agreements.

"Patients want to know that decisions about their health are being made by their doctors, not by Wall Street investors," Warren said. Attorneys at Holland & Knight wrote that debate will likely focus on the bill's effects on access to capital and investment, and that near-term passage would require significant congressional action with little time left before the November midterms.

HIV injections outperform daily pills in adolescents

Cost and refrigeration needs keep the shots out of reach in much of Africa.

Long-acting cabotegravir and rilpivirine injections given every eight weeks kept HIV suppressed better than standard daily dolutegravir-based tablets in adolescents, according to a randomized trial published Sept. 17 in The Lancet. Among 476 participants ages 12 to 19 in Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe, all with undetectable virus at enrollment, two on injections had confirmed viral rebound by 96 weeks, compared with 15 on tablets.

No new safety concerns emerged, and 94% of adolescents on injections said the shots were a lot easier than daily pills. "Nine out of 10 adolescents with HIV live in Africa yet currently this treatment is not accessible to them," Sarah Pett, Ph.D., the trial's chief investigator at University College London, said in a news release. Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicines co-funded the trial and supplied rilpivirine.

Repurposed tapeworm drug could ease endometriosis

Human trials remain several phases away.

A single injection of niclosamide, a drug approved to treat intestinal tapeworms, reduced endometriosis lesions and pain sensitivity in mice when delivered by a nanoparticle aimed at disease-linked immune cells, according to a study in Advanced Healthcare Materials. Researchers at Washington State University (WSU) bound the poorly soluble drug to a dendrimer, a branched molecule built to enter macrophages that carry folate receptor beta. Depending on dose and time point, 37.5% to 62.5% of treated mice developed no lesions, compared with none of the controls.

Current treatments rely on hormonal therapies that can affect fertility and bone density, or on surgery, after which lesions often return. "The idea is that if it's stable for a month, you could go to the doctor once a month, get the shot, either IV or muscle injection, and then go home," said Kanako Hayashi, a WSU professor of molecular biosciences and corresponding author, in a university news release. Several authors hold pending patents on the platform.