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The Health | february, 2019
Health Business
Briefs
Covetrus announces
board of directors
Henry Schein, Inc. (Nasdaq: HSIC)
and Vets First Choice today announced
their designees who will comprise
the 11-member board of directors for
Covetrus, the new standalone public
company that will result from the planned
spin-off of the Henry Schein Animal Health
business and the subsequent merger with
Vets First Choice. The merger is expected
to be consummated on or about February
4, 2019.
As previously announced, David E. Shaw,
Co-Founder and Chairman of Vets First
Choice, will become the Chairman of the
Board of Covetrus. Mr. Shaw has helped
build a number of successful science-
based companies including Ikaria and
IDEXX where he was founding chair and
CEO. Philip A. Laskawy, a former partner,
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
the accounting firm EY LLP, and currently
the Lead Independent Director on Henry
Schein’s board of directors, will serve as
Lead Independent Director of Covetrus.
Global health research
money reaches ‘record high’
The G-Finder report found that money
invested in research and development
reached $3.5bn (£2.8bn) in 2017. The total
is a 7% increase on the previous year. But
the group which tracked the data warned
that this area of global health was still too
reliant on a handful of top funders.
The largest funder was the US
government, which through its National
Institutes of Health provided 39% of the
total. There were significant increases in
contributions from the UK, the European
Commission (EC), Germany and India. The
total investment was the largest seen since
2009.
A small Australian not-for-profit
organisation called Policy Cures Research
has been paid by the Gates Foundation
to monitor how new health technologies
are funded. Its work looks at what drug
companies, universities, governments and
non-governmental organisations spend
on detecting, treating or preventing big
killer diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria
and tuberculosis (TB). Research and
development grants helping lesser-known
illnesses - such as diarrhoeal diseases,
dengue and leprosy – are also included.
Business operators
can ask Health Ministry
to declare their premises
smoke-free area
All business operators can voluntarily
request to the Health Ministry to make
their premises a smoke-free area. Deputy
Health Minister Dr Lee Boon Chye said
once business operators make their
premises a smoke free area, health officers
could issue warnings to those who smoke
there, even if the business premises may
not be an eatery.
“We have received complaints from other
business operators saying that smokers
who move three meters away from the
eateries are smoking at their compounds.
For these business operators, they can
always request to the Health Ministry and
we will award them a blue ribbon,” he
said adding that 100 business operators
in Sabah were awarded with blue ribbon
last week for voluntarily requesting their
premises to be declared a smoke free area.
— The Health
Insurance scheme
to benefit 3.7 mil
poor Malaysians
P
rime Minister Tun Dr
Mahathir Mohamad today
launched the B40 national
protection scheme,
or mySalam, which is
expected to benefit 3.69
million people in the bottom 40 (B40)
group.
The 3.69 million comprise working
adults aged between 18 and 55 years
old, Mahathir said.
He said through this scheme, the
federal government intended to help
the B40 group overcome financial
constraints arising from the admis-
sion to government hospitals or when
afflicted with one of 36 unexpected
critical illnesses.
As of 2017, he said the insurance
and takaful penetration rate for the
B40 working class was still low at
30.3% compared to that of the overall
working adults at 50.4%.
“We hope that mySalam helps
increase the insurance and takaful
penetration for the B40 group, as it
is very important and meaningful in
our efforts to uplift their quality of
life. Even though we have inherited
a heavy financial burden, this will
not stop the government from
introducing programmes which are
people-friendly, such as mySalam.”
“This initiative is also a significant
move on the government’s part to
draft a more inclusive financial devel-
opment policy in the country,” he said
during his speech.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng,
Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad,
Deputy Finance Minister Amiruddin
Hamzah and Treasury secretary-
general Ahmad Badri Mohd Zahir
were also present at the launch.
The fund has so far received RM2
billion from private insurance firm
Great Eastern Life. With this amount,
the scheme is expected to offer medi-
cal protection for at least five years to
the target group.
Under the scheme, qualified recipi-
ents will get free health protection for
36 critical illnesses including cancer,
heart attacks and Alzheimer’s disease.
Recipients will get a one-off payment
of RM8,000 if they are identified as
suffering from one of the listed critical
illnesses.
The scheme also gives out a daily
payment of RM50 as replacement
income, if the recipient has to undergo
treatment at any government hospital
for a maximum of 14 days a year,
equivalent to RM700 a year.
It will launch the scheme next week
for those in the B40 group aged 50 and
above. It is a pioneer project with an
allocation of RM100 million. — The
health
New blood for Invitrocue
I
nvitrocue Limited (IVQ), a
leading healthcare bio-analytic
solutions provider, is pleased
to announce the appointment of
Professor Jesús García-Foncillas and
Professor Masakazu Toi as Clinical
Advisor of Invitrocue.
Professor Jesús is an experi-
enced oncology researcher with
25 years of experience in cancer
diagnosis and treatment. He holds
multiple executive leadership posi-
tions at “Fundacion Jimenez Diaz”
Autonomous University of Madrid,
Spain (FJD-UAM).
He is the Director of the University
Cancer Institute and the Department
of Oncology at FJD-UAM, and the
Director of Translational Oncology
Division at the Health Research
Institute FJD-UAM. Professor Jesús
also serves as the Coordinator of the
Comprehensive Cancer Program of
four University Hospitals located in
Madrid.
As for Professor Masakazu Toi,
he is a renowned oncology expert
having held various roles as healthcare
provider, scholar, and opinion leader.
Professor Toi brings strong clinical
oncology knowledge and experience
especially in breast cancer, as well as
Professor Masakazu Toi and Professor Jesús-García-Foncillas.
a wide network with cancer institutes
and hospitals in Japan.
Joining at a time when Invitrocue
accelerates the global roll-out of its
proprietary Onco-PDOTM person-
alised cancer screening test, Professor
Toi will advise Invitrocue’s research
team on clinical validation and cancer
menu expansion of Onco-PDOTM in
Japan.
He will also play an important role
in identifying and engaging key part-
ners, including local cancer research
centres, hospitals and pharmaceutical
companies.
Commenting on the appointment,
Dr. Steven Fang, Executive Chairman,
Invitrocue, said:
“We are very excited to welcome
Professor Jesús and Professor Toi to
our highly committed and respected
team of clinical advisors.
As a highly-regarded opinion leader
in Spain, Professor Jesús will play
an important role in facilitating our
collaborations with leading hospitals,
pharmaceutical companies and local
cancer research centres in Spain. And
as a well-respected researcher and
educator, Professor Toi will broaden
our understanding of breast cancer
profiles, transforming drug sensitivity
tests and cancer treatment decision
making for better.” — The health