Bill of Health
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Bill of Health was launched in September 2012 by the Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School to provide a one-stop shop for readers interested in news, commentary, and scholarship in the fields of health law policy, biotechnology, and bioethics. Since then, we've had 90 contributors from 49 different institutions across the globe contribute to build this platform.
Bill of Health
1d ago
By Vincent Joralemon
As therapies using drugs like MDMA, psilocybin, and LSD advance through the FDA research and approval pipeline, patients should be prepared for steep price tags attached to these procedures. For example, experts estimate MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD will cost upwards of $12,000 per patient.
These high costs highlight the need for comprehensive insurance coverage because many of those experiencing symptoms of conditions like PTSD also frequently lack the resources to pay for such treatments. Looking at how the current system works, including presently available psychedeli ..read more
Bill of Health
1w ago
By Vincent Joralemon
MDMA (also known as the club drug “molly” or “ecstasy”) is a Schedule I controlled substance — the most restrictive drug class with the most severe criminal consequences linked to it. But, perhaps not for long.
A recent effort to get MDMA approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) means the drug may be rescheduled, which will lead to substantially decreased regulations attached to it. This provides a compelling model for efforts to decriminalize and destigmatize other substances moving forward.
How Scheduling Works
In ..read more
Bill of Health
1w ago
By Hannah Rahim
In January 2024, Pope Francis called for a universal ban on surrogacy as a threat to global peace and human dignity, claiming that the practice is a “grave violation” of the mother and child’s dignity and based on the “exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs.” Surrogacy raises complex ethical and legal issues, particularly in cases of international surrogacy, where people seek surrogacy services from another country. There is currently no regulation of international surrogacy. Creating such regulation is important to allow appropriate access to surrogacy servi ..read more
Bill of Health
1w ago
By Sana S. Baban
At present, there is a population of patients who would physiologically benefit from transplantation but are rejected based on pre-determined non-medical criteria: the presence of psychotic disorders.
An upcoming opportunity for reform provides a chance to rectify this injustice.
The existing organ allocation system has historically marginalized individuals diagnosed with psychotic or affective disorders, such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorders, and delusional disorders, labeling them as lower priority or altogether ineligible for transplantation. This exclusion is pr ..read more
Bill of Health
1w ago
By Joelle Boxer
Late last year, Dr. Eunice Brookman-Amissah won the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for her pioneering efforts to improve safe abortion access in sub-Saharan Africa.
According to Dr. Brookman-Amissah, of the 36,000 deaths that occur globally due to unsafe abortion, almost 24,000 are in sub-Saharan Africa. “That was a totally unacceptable state of affairs,” she said, “given the fact that nobody, absolutely no woman has to die from a totally treatable and manageable cause.” Her advocacy work is credited with contributing to a 40% reduction in ..read more
Bill of Health
2w ago
By Adithi Iyer
The idea of artificial intelligence is just seeping into our collective consciousness, but as we watch new developments in the space, the true “new kid on the block” may be a new type of infused human-technology intelligence — one derived from a blob of cells no larger than a grain of rice. These new units of computational prowess are brain organoids, grown in-lab and capable of producing very basic, but real-time, neurological activity. Brain organoids are a specific, and arguably the most interesting, subset of organoid models that are just beginning to enter legal debates.
Th ..read more
Bill of Health
2w ago
By Vincent Joralemon
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recent acceptance of an MDMA-assisted therapy New Drug Application has experts buzzing over expanded access to the infamous substance commonly known as “ecstasy” or “molly.”
Yet, once approved, FDA will put limits on the approved drug. If past psychedelics are any indication, this means that MDMA will probably need to be provided in a clinic under certain protocols. This means patients will need to wait for other MDMA products to complete clinical trials before we’ll see at-home, private use of the drug.
The MDMA NDA
Back in De ..read more
Bill of Health
2w ago
By Susannah Baruch
Concerned about privacy protections for pregnancy- and abortion-related health data in the post-Dobbs environment?
The film Preconceived, premiering at SXSW this week, shines a bright light on anti-abortion “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” (CPCs), including their disturbing take on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
The film’s footage of practices inside these centers is extraordinary. As I (and many, many others) have documented elsewhere, although they hold themselves out as medical centers for pregnant women, CPCs do not provide the care they promi ..read more
Bill of Health
3w ago
By Vincent Joralemon
In my last post, I discussed the rise of psychedelic lobbying — how companies with vested economic interests in psychedelics have applied pressure to shape regulations that favor their business models.
One such initiative — the ketamine therapy industry’s push to extend the COVID-era telemedicine flexibilities for prescriptions of controlled substances — highlights how sophisticated these campaigns can be, and how their impact stretches beyond the psychedelic industry.
Off-Label Ketamine Prescriptions
First, a bit of background. Ketamine is unique among psychedelics becaus ..read more
Bill of Health
3w ago
By Hannah Rahim
The regulation of medical assistance in dying (MAID) is drastically different between the U.S. and Canada. Comparing the hasty liberalization of MAID in Canada with the more wary approach of the U.S. can yield important learnings for both countries.
An overview of MAID laws in Canada and the U.S.
In 2016, the Parliament of Canada passed a federal law enabling eligible Canadian adults to request MAID. At the time, the law required a person’s natural death to be “reasonably foreseeable” for a person to be eligible for MAID. The law did not specify a length of time until death tha ..read more