Trending News Today: Study Links Prenatal Nicotine Exposure to ADHD in Offspring

The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) found that Novartis’ experimental gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) would be worth up to $900,000, Reuters reported. According to the article, the ICER made the determination using a cost-effectiveness threshold that values each “quality-adjusted life year” (QALY) gained at $100,000 to $150,000. Novartis said the price will be determined in negotiations with health plans, but it believes the therapy would be cost effective at $4 million to $5 million as a 1-time treatment, the article reported.

A new study published in Pediatrics suggests that prenatal exposure to nicotine from smoking may be linked to the development of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in offspring. According to the study, the researchers used a national database in Finland to analyze the measurements of nicotine levels in blood samples of 950,000 pregnant women and tracked children who developed ADHD. The data showed that mothers of children with an ADHD diagnosis had a mean blood cotinine level more than double that of mothers of the control children.

Preliminary data suggest that increasing mortality from synthetic opioids was more prevalent in the eastern United States, according to a study from JAMA Network Open. According to the study, the researchers utilized data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics and the US census to identify 351,630 opioid-related deaths from 1999 to 2016. The findings showed that New Hampshire and West Virginia had the biggest drops in life expectancy due to opioid deaths, and Montana and Oregon were the only states to see a decline in opioid deaths from 1999 to 2016.