This Week in Health News: 12 Stories You Need to See

A roundup of the week's most newsworthy health industry press releases from PR Newswire, including the FDA's approval of a vaccine to prevent RSV in infants.

NEW YORK, Aug. 25, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on PR Newswire. To help journalists covering the healthcare industry stay on top of the week's most newsworthy and popular releases, here's a roundup of stories from the week that shouldn't be missed.

The list below includes the headline (with a link to the full text) and an excerpt from each story. Click on the press release headlines to access accompanying multimedia assets that are available for download.

1. FDA Approves First Vaccine for Pregnant Individuals to Prevent RSV in Infants
   "RSV is a common cause of illness in children, and infants are among those at highest risk for severe disease, which can lead to hospitalization," said Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. "This approval provides an option for healthcare providers and pregnant individuals to protect infants from this potentially life-threatening disease."
2. Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company and Drexi Team Up to Deliver Better Access to Medications at Affordable and Sustainable Prices
   Anthony Masotto, GM and EVP Pharmacy at Drexi, emphasized, "Our mission is to empower every one of our members to prioritize their health without the worry and undue burden of unaffordable medications."
3. CVS Health Launches Cordavis
   The new business will bring high quality biosimilar products to market with goal of reducing drug spend and ensuring access to affordable medications. Cordavis will launch biosimilar Hyrimoz^® with Sandoz beginning in 2024 at more than 80% lower list price than Humira^®.
4. Mysthera Therapeutics Launches to Develop First-in-Class Autoimmune Disease Therapies
   Autoimmune diseases impact over 23 million in US alone. Despite recent progress and novel treatment options, significant unmet needs remain due to poor response rates and adverse safety profiles of currently available treatment medicines.
5. Oracle Joins White House CancerX Initiative to Aid in the Fight Against Cancer
   "The healthcare market continues to be highly fragmented which hinders both patient care and the quest for a cure," said Seema Verma, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Life Sciences. "We are proud to bring our expertise in healthcare, clinical research, and enterprise cloud technology to deliver more innovative and effective treatments to those fighting cancer."
6. Gympass Raises $85 Million in Series F Funding at $2.4 Billion Valuation, Strengthens Position as the Leading Global Corporate Wellness Platform
   Regardless of the economic environment, organizations are recognizing that employee wellbeing doesn't just positively impact retention, happiness and productivity–it also decreases healthcare costs. A Gympass study on the ROI of wellness programs discovered that physically active employees can reduce company healthcare costs by thirty-five percent after a twelve month period.
7. Cigna Healthcare Removes 25 Percent of Medical Services From Prior Authorization, Simplifying the Care Experience for Customers and Clinicians
   With this update, prior authorization now applies to less than four percent of medical services for most Cigna Healthcare customers, and the company continues to streamline its use to optimize care delivery. Cigna Healthcare will also remove prior authorization for nearly 500 additional codes for Medicare Advantage plans later this year.
8. Levita^® Magnetics Wins FDA Clearance for Pioneering MARS™ System
   The Levita MARS system is a first-of-its-kind minimally invasive surgical platform aimed at the high-volume abdominal surgery market. Harnessing the power of both magnets and machines, MARS reduces the number of incisions and enables surgeons to have complete control during laparoscopic procedures.
9. Peloton Kicks Off College Strategy Engaging Students, Athletes, and Alumni
   With the goal of making it easier for students to dedicate time to themselves, their overall health, and their fitness, Peloton remains committed to supporting and inspiring their fitness ambitions as well as their college communities, furthering efforts to empower anyone, anytime, anywhere.
10. Body Vision Medical Introduces Latest Version of LungVision™ Software with Big Design Upgrade
    The latest LungVision™ software not only introduces a brand-new redesign of the user interface, but is packed with new features including an AI-driven suggested lesion location feature that assists with accurate localization of pulmonary lesions on the real-time, intraoperative images produced by the system during diagnostic bronchoscopy.
11. New Survey from RethinkFirst Reveals Nearly 74% of Parents Missed Work Last Year to Address Their Child's Mental Health or Academic Performance
    "Workplace absenteeism related to supporting children is a growing concern. As employers look for ways to support employees and their families, it will be increasingly important to offer mental and behavioral health benefits, including those for children with learning and developmental challenges," said Daniel Etra, CEO and co-founder of RethinkFirst.
12. Cochlear™ Osia^® System becomes industry's first active bone conduction system to enable MRI at 3 Tesla
    "An improvement in the ability of patients to undergo high-resolution MRI scans with our technology was the number one request we heard from customers. With the new system, patients with an active bone conduction system can conveniently undergo MRI at 1.5 T and at 3.0 T with no impact to their hearing – MRI should be accessible to everyone" says Dig Howitt, Chief Executive Officer & President of Cochlear.

Read more of the latest health-related releases from PR Newswire and stay caught up on the top press releases by following @PRNhealth on Twitter.

Can't-Miss Earnings

In addition to these popular releases, several must-read earnings reports crossed the wire this week, including the quarterly results for Medtronic.

Catch up on all the latest earnings reports here.

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