Trending News Today: Remicade Biosimilar to Increase Competition

After a 10-year effort by advocates at the California Department of Public Health will add categories that allows individuals to self-report their ethnic group more specifically and accurately, according to California Healthline. When mapping out health trends among Asian ethnic groups, the state has used a limited number of categories for years. People of Taiwanese descent may have been grouped into the Chinese demographic in identifying disease, pregnancy rates, and death, while Fijian individuals were lumped into the category of “other Asian,” Healthline reported. The new law, which was signed in September by Gov. Jerry Brown, will add 10 new categories that will specify whether an individual is Bangladeshi, Hmong, Indonesian, Malaysian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Taiwanese or Thai, or if they’re from Fiji or Tonga.

In the wake of the launch of Remicade biosimilar Inflectra, Johnson & Johnson reassured investors and analysts that the lower-priced competition will not hinder the company by posting their positive third quarter results. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company saw slightly better than expected results with worldwide sales increasing by 4.2%, to $17.8 billion. J&J reported a profit or $4.27 billion, equating to $1.53 a share, which was up from $1.20 a share ($3.36 billion) in the same period last year.

A new federal audit of Medicare revealed that all chiropractic care after the first 30 treatments were unnecessary, reported The Wall Street Journal. The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General found that in 2013 Medicare, spent approximately $359 million, or more than 80%, on necessary chiropractic care for the treatment of sprains, strains, and other joint conditions, according to the Journal.