Current Events in August 2017

Besides the blowback from the revelation that another 1.4 million customers may have fallen into the bogus account trap, Wells Fargo is now facing a class action lawsuit that says it bilked home loan borrowers by charging them extra fees when their applications were denied, even when the denail was because of a bank error. 

The case revolves around rate-lock extension fees -- the fees borrowers pay to "lock in" an interest rate for a specific period of time, usually 30 to 45 days. If it takes longer than that for the loan to be approved, the borrower is charged an extra fee.

The plaintiff in the suit, Las Vegas security guard Victor Muniz, alleges that he paid a $287 fee to extend his locked-in rate even though the delays in approval were caused by the bank, according to a Reuters report.

Muniz said the bank hired an appraiser who was out of the country at the time and could not complete the appraisal in the time permitted.

The suit charges that the bank's loan department was chronically understaffed and that many customers had to pay the extension fee because of delays caused by the bank's disarray.

The suit was filed by the Seattle law firm Keller Rohrbeck, the same firm that sued Wells Fargo in 2015 over the creation of bogus accounts, leading the bank to agree to a $142 million settlement. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new gene therapy that may be able to treat, or even cure, a pervasive form of childhood cancer.

The approval allows for Kymriah -- the name that the cell-based gene therapy will be sold under -- to be used by children and other young patients up to the age of 25 who suffer from B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The approval extends to forms of the disease that are refractory or in second or later relapse. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb says that the new treatment method is a game-changer that can help save countless lives.

“We’re entering a new frontier in medical innovation with the ability to reprogram a patient’s own cells to attack a deadly cancer,” Gottlieb said in a statement. “New technologies such as gene and cell therapies hold out the potential to transform medicine and create an inflection point in our ability to treat and even cure many intractable illnesses.”

Promising treatment

Unlike many other therapies, Kymriah works by genetically modifying a patient’s own T cells to fight off disease. The T cells are collected by researchers and sent to a manufacturing center where they are modified to include a new gene that targets and kills leukemia cells. After being altered, the cells are sent back and infused in the patient where they go to work.

The treatment could prove to be monumentally important in fighting ALL, the most common form childhood cancer which affects a patient’s bone marrow and blood. The National Cancer Institute says that approximately 3,100 patients under the age of 20 are diagnosed with the disease ever year.

The FDA says that Kymriah will only be intended for patients who have not responded well to initial treatments or who have suffered a relapse, which occurs an estimated 15-20% of the time.

“Kymriah is a first-of-its-kind treatment approach that fills an important unmet need for children and young adults with this serious disease,” said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). “Not only does Kymriah provide these patients with a new treatment option where very limited options existed, but a treatment option that has shown promising remission and survival rates in clinical trials.”

Costs and side effects

Despite its great promise, the FDA warns that Kymriah does have the potential for severe side effects. Experts say it could lead to high fever, flu-like symptoms, and neurological events that can be life-threatening.

Other serious side effects include infection, acute kidney injury, and hypoxia, which may appear within the first three weeks of infusion. The FDA is requiring hospitals and clinics to be specially certified in order to use the treatment.

Another major drawback of Kymriah may be its cost. Bloomberg cites analysts as saying that the treatment could cost $500,000 or more, though the Switzerland-based company producing the treatment did say that the U.S. government would only need to pay for the drug if patients responded to treatment by the end of their first month.

It’s important to set good habits for ourselves when we’re young, especially when it comes to staying healthy. But a recent study conducted by the American Heart Association shows that many young people, and particularly young men, are dropping the ball when it comes to regulating their cardiovascular health.

Senior study author Andrew Moran York points out that heart-related issues like high blood pressure cost the U.S. public around $110 billion in 2015, and that improving heart conditions in young people could go a long way towards reducing that burden.

"While hypertension awareness, treatment and control have improved overall since the early 2000s, all three remain worse in young adults -- those aged 18-39," he said.

Focusing on cardiovascular health

The researchers came to their conclusions after analyzing data on 41,000 people who took part in eight national health surveys between 1999 and 2014. Among the key findings, they say that:

• Only half of 6.7 million young adults with high blood pressure in 2013-2014 received treatment, while only 40% managed to lower their blood pressure to safe levels;
• Among young men, rates of awareness, treatment, and control were lower compared to young women (68.4% vs. 86% for awareness, 43.7% vs. 61.3% for treatment, and 33.7% vs. 51.8% for control); and
• Nearly 75% of young adults who had high blood pressure were obese, compared with 57% for middle-aged adults and 42% for older adults. The researchers say this indicates that young adults with high blood pressure are twice as likely to be obese.

Lead author Dr. Yiyi Zhang said that the findings highlight several shortcomings among young people when it comes to screening and managing their cardiovascular health. The researchers recommend that this demographic renew their focus on their health in order to improve outcomes.

"The first step for young adults is to have their blood pressure measured, whether in a doctor's office, pharmacy or other place in their community. Young adults with consistently high blood pressure need a link to clinical care to verify the diagnosis and receive regular monitoring and possibly treatment," said Zhang.

The full study has been published in Hypertension.