Health Beat: New FDA innovation competition to help reduce opioid overdose deaths

Editor’s note: Each Wednesday, Talk Business & Politics provides “Health Beat,” a round-up health-related topics.  –––––––––––––––

FDA LAUNCHES COMPETITION TO SPUR INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES TO HELP REDUCE OPIOID OVERDOSE DEATHS
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday (Sept. 19) announced the 2016 Naloxone App Competition, a public contest focused on developing innovative technologies to combat the rising epidemic of opioid overdose.

The FDA, with support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), is inviting computer programmers, public health advocates, clinical researchers, entrepreneurs and innovators from all disciplines to create a mobile phone application that can connect opioid users experiencing an overdose with nearby carriers of the prescription drug naloxone – the antidote for an opioid overdose – thereby increasing the likelihood of timely administration and overdose reversal.

The competition builds on work announced in the FDA’s Opioids Action Plan and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Opioid Initiative to take concrete steps toward reducing the impact of opioid misuse, dependence and overdose on American families and communities by making naloxone more accessible. To learn more, click here,

HHS TAKES STEPS TO PROVIDE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT CLINICAL TRIALS TO THE PUBLIC
In an effort to make information about clinical trials widely available to the public, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued a final rule that specifies requirements for registering certain clinical trials and submitting summary results information to ClinicalTrials.gov.

The new rule expands the legal requirements for submitting registration and results information for clinical trials involving U.S. Food and Drug Administration-regulated drug, biological and device products.

At the same time, the National Institutes of Health has issued a complementary policy for registering and submitting summary results information to ClinicalTrials.gov for all NIH-funded trials, including those not subject to the final rule.

Expanding the registration information in ClinicalTrials.gov improves people’s ability to find clinical trials in which they may be able to participate and access investigational therapies, HHS officials said.

More information about the scientific results of trials, whether positive or negative, may help inform healthcare providers and patients regarding medical decisions. Additional information will help researchers avoid unnecessary duplication of studies, focus on areas in need of study and improve study designs, ultimately advancing the development of clinical interventions.

CDC: MORE THAN 1 IN 4 US ADULTS OVER 50 DO NOT ENGAGE IN REGULAR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Despite the many benefits of moderate physical activity, 31 million Americans (28%) age 50 years and older are inactive – that is, they are not physically active beyond the basic movements needed for daily life activities. This finding comes from a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published in The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. CDC researchers analyzed data from the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for all 50 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.) to examine patterns of inactivity among adults ages 50 and older by selected characteristics.