• District of Columbia/New York: According to a small study published in Communications Medicine, the COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid could potentially help treat long COVID when taken outside of an active infection. In the study, researchers analyzed data from 13 patients who had been diagnosed with long COVID and took Paxlovid for 7.5 to 30 days. Of the patients, seven reported improvements in their long COVID symptoms, and five of the seven said they had sustained improvement. According to the researchers, more research is needed to determine which patients could benefit from Paxlovid and how long the drug should be taken to relieve symptoms. "We are about five years into the pandemic, and yet there are not yet any [federally approved] treatments for long COVID," said Alison Cohen, an assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, and the study's primary author. "This is not a silver bullet, but it may help a lot of people in a meaningful way." (Choi, The Hill, 1/6; Colliver, UCSF News, 1/6)
• North Carolina: Hospitals are expected to continue experiencing an IV fluid shortage through the early months of this year. Last September, Hurricane Helene caused severe damage across several states, including to one of Baxter International's IV fluid manufacturing facilities in North Carolina. This facility supplied around 60% of the IV solution used by U.S. hospitals every day. Since then, hospitals have had to conserve their IV fluids, with some switching to giving patients Gatorade or water instead of an IV. In December, Baxter said that it restarted eight out of 10 manufacturing lines at its facilities and expected "to be producing at pre-hurricane levels across the plant early in the first quarter of 2025," though it will "take some time for product to flow through the distribution channels." According to Nancy Foster, VP of quality and safety policy at the American Hospital Association, the IV fluid shortage will likely "continue well into January," but the organization is "hopeful that we will continue to see improvement along the way such that the magnitude of the problem will diminish week by week as more of Baxter's production lines are operational and the FDA verifies that the fluids they produce are safe for use." (Henderson, MedPage Today, 12/31/24)
• Rhode Island: CVS Health on Monday announced that all commercial prescriptions dispensed at its pharmacies will be processed through its CostVantage reimbursement model starting this year. Under the model, which was originally introduced in December 2023, prescription prices are based on their underlying costs, along with delineated markup and dispensing fees. According to CVS, the CostVantage model makes it less necessary to increase costs of certain prescriptions to cover losses for other medications. Prem Shah, CVS' group president, said the company is also working with CMS to expand the program to Medicare and Medicaid prescriptions. "Delivering on our commitment to transform the pharmacy model, we successfully led the way forward, contracting with pharmacy benefit managers and other payors to advance a more transparent approach to reimbursement for the prescriptions we dispense and the services we provide," Shah said. (Minemyer, Fierce Healthcare, 1/6)

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