Brainstorm Health: Glaxo Spurns Pfizer, Drugs on Your Fingertips

Good morning and happy Friday, readers! This is Sy.

I’m traveling today so we’ll have to leave you with a short one going into the weekend.

Read on for the day’s news, and we’ll be back on Monday!

Sy Mukherjee

DIGITAL HEALTH

Another day, another health care data breach. Health care is a prime target for hacks, ransomware, and other assorted digital delinquency. But the nature of such cyber attacks can take many forms, as demonstrated by the case of ATI Physicial Therapy. The Illinois-based firm notified more than 35,000 patients about a possible data breach which "could include a combination of Social Security numbers, driver’s license or state identification numbers, financial account numbers, Medicare or Medicaid identification numbers, and medical record numbers, along with a wide range of medical information," Healthcare IT News reports. (Healthcare IT News)

INDICATIONS

Glaxo surges after spurning Pfizer. Shares of British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline soared 5% on Friday after the company announced it was withdrawing its potential bid for Pfizer's consumer health care business (such a deal would have rung in as much as $20 billion for Pfizer). GSK has a tangible interest in the consumer health field (its CEO, Emma Walmsley, oversaw Glaxo's own unit in this space before her her promotion to the top perch). "While we will continue to review opportunities that may accelerate our strategy, they must meet our criteria for returns and not compromise our priorities for capital allocation," Walmsley said in a statement. (Reuters)

THE BIG PICTURE

The drug crisis at your fingertips. Just how bad is the U.S. drug addiction crisis? You may have (very small) traces of cocaine or heroin on your hands without even realizing it, according to a new study in the journal Clinical Chemistry. "Scientists have discovered that both drugs have become so widely used that 13% of people have traces of them on their fingers, without realizing it. That means that a little over one in ten people are unknowingly walking around with drugs on their hands," writes my colleague Emily Price. (Fortune)