Google’s health team is reorganizing

Hello,

Welcome to Insider Healthcare. I'm Lydia Ramsey Pflanzer, and today in healthcare news:

• Google's healthcare team is reorganizing;
• Doctors and drugmakers disagree on when we might need coronavirus booster shots;
• What a lawsuit against Centene reveals about pharmaceutical middlemen.

If you're new to this newsletter, sign up here. Comments, tips? Email me at [email protected] or tweet @lydiaramsey125. Let's get to it…

Just a heads up that there will be no newsletter tomorrow, in observance of Juneteenth. I'll be back in your inbox first thing Monday.

EXCLUSIVE: Google is downsizing its health team and moving employees to Fitbit as part of a major reorganization

• Google's young health division is splintering, according to employees and an email seen by Insider.
• Google Health teams working on sensors, search, and health records are moving to Fitbit and Search.
• It's yet another growing pain for a big tech company that's still finding its voice in healthcare.

Get the scoop here>>

One year or 5? Doctors and drug companies increasingly disagree about when we'll need COVID-19 booster shots

• Booster shots may not be medically necessary for another one to five years, disease experts wager.
• But pharmaceutical companies are prepping to distribute boosters to the US before the end of 2021.
• In either case, boosters probably won't require the same urgency as initial vaccines do.

Get the full story>>

A lawsuit against the largest provider of government health insurance gives a rare glimpse into how pharmacy benefit managers can make money

• Centene just settled litigation over the practices of its pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs.
• As part of the $88 million settlement in Ohio, the Ohio attorney general's complaint was unsealed.
• The complaint offers a rare glimpse at how some PBMs make money.

Here's what we learned>>

More stories we're reading:

• CureVac's COVID-19 shot just failed in a large trial, a major setback for the Gates-backed biotech (Insider)
• Digital health companies are outgrowing highly specific markets. One expert says that's fueling the consolidation wave overtaking the industry. (Insider)
• Inside Apple's health ambitions, which have struggled to take off (The Wall Street Journal)
• Bernie Sanders tells us he's 'delighted' Ron DeSantis cribbed his idea to import prescription drugs from Canada (Insider)
• Mississippi is suing three drugmakers over insulin prices (Endpoints News)

- Lydia