Latest / Apple News Today / Cancer drugs keep running out. Here’s why.

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Cancer drugs keep running out. Here’s why. · Apple News Today

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  Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Thursday, July 6th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show, why we're experiencing a shortage of cancer drugs, Georgia's move to make Medicaid recipients work to qualify for benefits, and how a pro golfer competing in the U.S. Women's Open is adjusting her game while seven months pregnant.
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  But first, let's take a look at some major stories unfolding today.
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  Trump aide Walt Nauta is in court today. He's expected to plead not guilty to charges he conspired with the former president to retain sensitive government documents and lied to federal investigators. Newly revealed details from an FBI search warrant request say that surveillance footage shows Nauta moving dozens of boxes before the Justice Department visited Mar-a-Lago in June of last year.
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  Also today, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is visiting China. It's the latest high-stakes visit by a top administration official. Relations have been tense lately, with tariffs from the Trump administration still in place, and mistrust following the Chinese spy balloon. Trade is a hot topic, with a special focus on semiconductors. The U.S. has restricted sales of microchips to Chinese companies. And China is clamping down on exports of minerals that are critical to the semiconductor industry.
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  And in Ukraine, rescuers are looking for survivors after a Russian missile strike hit an apartment building in Lviv today. At least four people are dead. The mayor calls it the biggest attack on the city's civilian infrastructure since the beginning of the invasion. The new strike comes as there's growing concern about security in a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant in Ukraine's south. Kyiv and Moscow have accused each other of planning a dangerous sabotage.
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  Now to a health story we've talked about on the show before, the critical supply issues around several crucial cancer drugs.
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  Ed Yong: The scope of this shortage, the number of drugs that are affected, the number of patients who are affected, is unprecedented.
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  Ed Yong is a science writer at "The Atlantic." He explains that safety issues that led to a shutdown of a major generic drug plant are part of the problem. But this goes much deeper than a single manufacturer, or pandemic supply-chain issues. There's a deeper economic problem.
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  Yong: Cancer drugs are running short because the market itself is the source of the problem. It is fundamentally flawed and must be reimagined.
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  Very few companies make the widely-used generic cancer drugs because it's a tough business to be in. They're sold at low prices, so there's little room for profit. And they're not easy to make.
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  Yong: These are the kinds of drugs that are injected into the bloodstream of patients who are often very sick, so they must be manufactured to extremely high standards.
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  Unethical companies may try to cut corners to increase profit. And companies that play by the rules sometimes choose to stop making generic drugs because they don't make enough money.
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  Yong says another problem is the lack of transparency about quality and output in the generic drug market. Hospitals don't know who is making the most reliable drugs. And without that information, it's a race to the bottom to buy the cheapest.
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  Yong: Because the supply chains and because the market is so completely opaque, it means that a hospital that's looking to buy drugs cannot look at different manufacturers and say, "Oh, this one is doing a better job in terms of quality, less likely to lead to a shortage. I will invest in them."
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  Yong explains that these are not just issues for generic cancer drugs. Other generics face similar problems.
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  Yong: This is why there was a shortage of Adderall for treating ADHD. This is why Albuterol that would go into people's inhalers went into shortage. This is why it was really hard to get childhood Tylenol. All of these problems stem from the same underlying issue, which is that the market for generic drugs is completely broken and because we have a for-profit capitalist healthcare system, which relies on those market dynamics.
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  The challenge is transforming the market can't simply be done by a single regulator. Health-policy experts tell Yong that, to make lasting change, lots of different federal agencies, health-care providers, and industries will need to make a coordinated response.
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  Let's turn to "State of the State," our series where we zoom in on a state issue and talk about how it's affecting people who live there. Today we're in Georgia. The state is doing something Congressional Republicans have tried and failed to roll out nationally. A new Georgia program will allow more people to qualify for Medicaid, but only if they meet work requirements. We talked to "Washington Post" health-care policy reporter Amy Goldstein about this issue.
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  Amy Goldstein: So what Georgia's doing, is in some ways similar to what other states have proposed, and that includes 80 hours a month of either working or training to have a job, going to school in some other way, having some volunteer work that you're doing in your community, or a combination of them.
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  The policy change makes Georgia the first state to tie work requirements to a partial expansion of Medicaid.
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  Goldstein: It is something that conservatives had been eager for, for a pretty long time. But the federal government, which runs Medicaid together with states, had always refused to allow states to do that.
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  Historically, Georgia has some of the nation's strictest rules when it comes to Medicaid eligibility. Parents are allowed to enroll if they are new mothers or have incomes of less than 8,000 dollars a year for a family of three. That's only 30 percent of the federal poverty level. Adults without children cannot join, regardless of how low their income is. But Goldstein explains, health and family situations may prevent people from finding work. And even when they do, it may be complicated to claim the benefits.
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  Goldstein: Well, this program is gonna require people to work or do some kind of good for their community at least 80 hours a month. And if you think about the nature of a lot of low wage jobs, the hours fluctuate. People can't always predict how many hours a week they're gonna be scheduled to work.
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  It's hard to know exactly how many people Georgia's new policy will impact, but there is federal data. A few months ago, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that proposed GOP work requirements on a national scale would've resulted in around 1.5 million Americans losing Medicaid coverage. Now we'll see how a different approach to work requirements in Georgia impacts the most vulnerable people in that state.
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  Today, the world's top golfers compete in the U.S. Women's Open. Amy Olson will be playing while seven months pregnant. "The Wall Street Journal" reports on how she's been ready for this for a long time. Early in her pregnancy, Olson reached out to other pro golfers who've played while pregnant. And the big question she asked is, how many weeks into the pregnancy could they stay competitive?
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  The consensus was things can get tough around 28 to 30 weeks. And Olson's week 31 would be during the Open. But this year isn't just any ordinary tournament. It's the first women's major held at the legendary Pebble Beach Golf Links in California. Olson told "Good Morning America" she didn't wanna miss her chance to play this course.
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  Amy Olson: Pebble Beach is just historic. The US women's Open is like the top level of our game, and I was like, if I can play in that, if I qualify, I'll be there. I'll waddle down the fairway, whatever it takes.
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  She did qualify and is having to make some adjustments. She brings a slightly different set of clubs. And she bends over more while putting, so her arm doesn't smack into her stomach. For such a technical sport, she's having to fine-tune the mechanics as she goes and rediscover the game in some unusual ways. Overall, she tells the "Journal," "it's obviously a little bit different when you have another human inside of you." But she says getting to play one of the most famous courses in the world while pregnant is a dream and a privilege.
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  You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, stick around.
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  We've got a narrated article coming up next. "Vanity Fair" speaks to Nancy Pelosi about how California's reputation as a liberal paradise is being challenged by economic uncertainty, a lack of affordable housing, drought, and wildfires.
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  That's coming up next, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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