The scoop on Walmart’s latest health venture

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Today in healthcare news: Walmart’s quietly building a startup that wants to use data to help customers make healthier choices, a senior living chain is requiring employees to get shots, and Verve’s building a gene-editing treatment for heart disease. 

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Walmart is quietly building a startup that wants to help shoppers make healthier choices

• Walmart is building a new health venture through its incubation arm Store No.8, Business Insider has learned.
• The venture, which doesn’t have a name yet, will aim to help shoppers make healthier choices based on their own shopping data.
• It builds on Walmart’s healthcare business, which includes clinics and pharmacies. 

Read the scoop from Blake Dodge and Áine Cain here>>

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A major chain of senior living facilities will require more than 10,000 workers to get COVID-19 shots

• Atria Senior Living, a large operator of independent living, assisted living, and other senior living facilities, is requiring more than 10,000 US employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
• Atria CEO John Moore told Business Insider that requiring the vaccine is “the responsible thing to do” to stop the spread of the coronavirus among staff and residents.
• Several other long-term care companies told Business Insider they are not mandating the coronavirus vaccine.
• Employers can require staff to give COVID-19 shots without running afoul of the law, according to federal guidance, and more employers are expected to follow in Atria’s footsteps.

Read the full story from Shelby Livingston here>>

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Verve is gearing up to test a gene-editing treatment that could cure heart disease. The CEO shares his 3-step vision for the one-and-done heart treatment.

• A buzzy Cambridge, Massachusetts biotech is advancing its research on a gene-editing treatment for heart disease.
• Verve Therapeutics CEO Sekar Kathiresan outlined the company's three-stage strategy to ultimately cure heart disease.
• Verve's first treatment candidate uses a next-generation gene-editing tool called base-editing to change a single letter in a person's genetic code. That edit will lower levels of bad cholesterol, the company hopes.
  

Read the full story from Andrew Dunn here>>

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More stories we're reading:

• One of digital health's only dedicated early-stage venture firms just raised $200 million for its second fund. Here's how founder Lynne Chou O'Keefe plans to spend it. (Business Insider)
• Uber and Lyft are pushing for a role in vaccine rollout (The Wall Street Journal)
• Answers to your 24 most burning questions about the coronavirus vaccine, from side effects and costs to when you'll be able to get one (Business Insider)
• One of Intarcia's key investors wrote down its stake former unicorn Intarcia (Stat News)

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- Lydia