Eli Lilly puts $2.75B behind AI drug discovery; telemedicine owner pleads guilty in $46.2M Medicare fraud; Elisabeth Armstrong named NIH Chief of Staff – Morning Medical Update

Eli Lilly puts $2.75B behind AI drug discovery

The expanded partnership gives Lilly exclusive worldwide rights to develop certain oral treatments currently in preclinical stages.

Eli Lilly has extended its partnership with Insilico Medicine in a deal valued at up to $2.75 billion, continuing a collaboration on AI-powered drug discovery that’s run since 2023. Under the agreement, Insilico will receive a $115 million upfront payment, with the remainder tied to development, regulatory and commercial milestones, plus tiered royalties on future sales. Lilly gains an exclusive worldwide license to develop, manufacture and commercialize certain oral treatments currently in preclinical development, using Insilico's AI engine. The two companies had most recently broadened their collaboration in November. Reuters has more.

Telemedicine company owner pleads guilty in $46.2M Medicare fraud scheme

Florida man admitted to running a six-year conspiracy involving paid doctors, unnecessary braces and genetic tests.

The owner of a Florida-based telemedicine company has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud for his role in a $46.2 million Medicare fraud scheme spanning more than six years. Christopher Harwood, 43, of Fort Lauderdale, admitted to operating TelevisitMD and using it to target Medicare patients through telemarketing campaigns, inducing them to accept orthotic braces and genetic tests they did not need. Harwood paid physicians to approve orders for those items without meaningful patient interaction, then sold the signed orders to durable medical equipment (DME) suppliers, laboratories and marketers. He also owned and operated multiple DME companies that submitted fraudulent claims directly to Medicare. Of the $46.2 million in false claims submitted, Medicare paid $17.9 million, with Harwood personally pocketing more than $10.4 million. He agreed to pay $17.9 million in restitution and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Sentencing has not yet been scheduled.

Elisabeth Armstrong named chief of staff at NIH

Armstrong brings a background in bioethics, health policy and broadcast journalism to the role.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has appointed Elisabeth Armstrong, D.B.e., as chief of staff in the NIH Office of the Director, where she will counsel NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D., and oversee operations and information flows. Armstrong most recently served as director of the Office of the Executive Secretariat at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and her prior experience spans health care policy research at Raymond James, bioethics roles at Meta's Reality Labs and CommonSpirit Health, and work as an Emmy-nominated broadcast journalist who filed reports for Fox News and Israeli news network i24.