• California: 23andMe on Monday announced that a data breach allowed hackers to access the personal information of around 6.9 million people. In some cases, this included people's ancestry trees, birth years, and geographic locations. The hackers used old passwords that 23andMe customers had used on other sites and were initially able to breach around 14,000 profiles, according to a disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That breach then opened the door to millions of other customer profiles. A spokesperson for 23andMe noted the company has "not learned of any reports of inappropriate use of the data after the leak." (Carballo, New York Times, 12/4)
• Florida: Panera Bread is being sued for the death of Dennis Brown, a resident of Fleming Island, Florida, who consumed three of the restaurant's Charged Lemonades on Oct. 9 and suffered a fatal cardiac arrest on his way home. The lawsuit comes two months after a separate lawsuit was filed against Panera for the death of Sarah Katz, a 21-year-old student with a heart condition who died in September 2022 after consuming a Charged Lemonade. The Charged Lemonade drink contains 390 milligrams of caffeine — more than any size of Panera's dark roast coffee, the lawsuits say, and more than the caffeine content of standard Red Bull and Monster energy drinks combined. According to FDA, healthy adults can safely consume 400 milligrams of caffeine a day. (Chuck, NBC News, 12/4)
• Indiana: Roche on Monday announced it is acquiring Carmot Therapeutics for $2.7 billion, with additional milestone payments of up to $400 million. As part of the deal, Roche will acquire three experimental obesity drugs from Carmot that are in Phase 1 or Phase 2 testing. All the drugs target GLP-1 hormone receptors, and two are designed to work through receptors for a different hormone called GIP. In a statement, Roche said the drug candidates owned by Carmot complemented medicines Roche had in its own pipeline, including some that are focused on preserving muscle mass. (Joseph, STAT+ [subscription required], 12/4)

While the healthcare industry wrestles with some concerns about data privacy, the question remains: who is working to protect the data of consumers and patients?

Radio Advisory's Rachel Woods sat down with Advisory Board experts Ty Aderhold, Sara Zargham, and Paul Trigonoplos to discuss one stakeholder that is making moves to protect data privacy: the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In the conversation, they explore recent regulatory actions taken by the FTC and what this means for the industry. Read a lightly edited excerpt from the conversation and download the episode below.