Plus: A mystery disease is currently circulating in Congo, how patients are using AI to fight claim denials and raw milk may have caused a bird flu infection.
Earlier this week, police arrested 26 year-old Luigi Mangione, who has been charged with second-degree murder in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City last week. He faces additional charges related to firearm possession and forgery. He also faces firearms and forgery charges in Pennsylvania, where he was apprehended. Today, police said that shell casings found at the scene of the crime matched the gun Mangione had in his possession at the time of his arrest. His fingerprints were also found at the scene.
The gun itself appears to be 3D-printed, a trend among criminals that has been growing over the past few years. According to reports, Mangione appears to have suffered from a rare back condition called spondylolisthesis. A review of his reddit account revealed multiple discussions about his back pain. Mangione has not yet pleaded guilty or not guilty on any charges. He remains in jail in Pennsylvania and is currently fighting extradition to New York.Initial Tests Of Unknown Disease In Congo Suggest Malaria, But Experts Are Still Concerned
Since October, over 400 people in the Kwango province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have been infected with an unknown disease that has killed at least 31 people, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The outbreak appears to be affecting mostly malnourished children under the age of 14. Yesterday, WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said that of 12 initial lab samples collected, 10 tested positive for malaria. The organization is doing more testing to isolate the cause.
This may take some time as the region is relatively remote. Getting teams there during the rainy season took several days and its infrastructure and telecommunications are limited. Ghebreyesus also noted that the area has “high levels of malnutrition and low vaccination coverage,” which complicates identification of any particular culprit.
It’s likely this may not be a new disease but rather “something that is not extraordinary, but occurring in a place where there are very limited resources,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “It just may be that they have increased mortality because multiple things are circulating at once.”
That said, there’s reason to pay attention to this outbreak, Rupali Limaye, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health told Forbes. If this is a new disease, or mutated version of an existing one, the area’s lack of infrastructure will be a major challenge for surveillance, she said. However, Adjala noted that because of recent outbreaks of other diseases in the DRC, there are already teams of doctors, scientists and other health professionals, who can help contain and control an outbreak.
For Anne Rimoin, an epidemiologist at UCLA who has worked in the DRC for decades, this situation highlights the need for more resources to combat infectious disease outbreaks. “We need to provide these countries the infrastructure and resources to be able to respond not only in times of war with these pathogens, but also in times of perceived peace,” she said.Pipeline & Deal Updates
Pharmacy: Penn Medicine is partnering with Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company to secure access to the top 100 dispensed generic medications from the company for its retail pharmacy network.
Robotics: Capstan Medical, which is developing robotics for minimally invasive heart surgery, announced that it has raised a $110 million series C round led by Eclipse.
Dermatology: Dermatology-focused pharmaceutical company Veradermics announced it has raised a $75 million series B round as it begins a clinical trial of its hair loss medication.
Concierge Care: Concierge medical provider Sollis Health has completed a $33 million series C round led by Foresite Capital.
Cancer: Tasca Therapeutics, which is developing small molecule treatments for certain cancers, announced it has raised a $52 million series A round.
VC: Venture capital company Dimension has closed $500 million to launch its second fund, Dimension II, focused on the “vanguard of life sciences and technology.” (You can read more about Dimension here.)These Entrepreneurs Are Using AI To Fight Health Insurance Claims Denials
U
nitedHealthcare, which has been thrust into the spotlight after the killing of its CEO Brian Thompson, has one of the highest rates of claims denials, in some cases using AI to deny patients care.
But entrepreneurs are now using AI to fight back. Holden Karau, a San Francisco Bay-area software engineer, recently built a free tool called FightHealthInsurance.com that uses AI to appeal denials. You give it some basic information about your denial, your insurance plan and your health history, and the tool asks some additional questions, then offers three different pre-written appeals to choose from.
“I want to increase appeals because I think there are too many denials, and it’s important that we level the AI playing field,” Karau said. “People are being hurt by the insurance companies’ use of AI.”Other Healthcare News
Local health officials are investigating a suspected bird flu case in California’s Marin County to determine if the illness was caused by consuming raw milk. On Friday, the USDA announced that raw milk needs to be tested for H5N1 prior to being sold.
Today, Forbes launched its annual list of the World’s Most Powerful Women. Among the listmakers are healthcare CEOs such as Gail Boudreaux, Emma Walmsley and Judy Faulkner.
Shares of Walgreens stock surged yesterday after it was reported that the drugstore chain is in talks to sell itself to a private equity firm.
More than 75 Nobel laureates have signed onto a letter urging senators to reject the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., president-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary.
Health insurer Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield says it is no longer planning a policy change that would place time limits on coverage for anesthesia services in Connecticut, New York and Missouri. The reversal came after the move drew widespread outrage.Across Forbes

“I haven’t seen any evidence that they have the right guy,” Thomas Dickey, a lawyer for Luigi Mangione, said Tuesday. The NYPD says otherwise. Police Commissioner.
“I haven’t seen any evidence that they have the right guy”, Thomas Dickey, a lawyer for Luigi Mangione, said Tuesday. The NYPD says otherwise. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Wednesday that the gun found on the 26-year-old is a match for the shell casings found at the site where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down in Manhattan a week ago. She added that Mangione’s fingerprints match those on a water bottle and protein bar wrapper found near the scene; they were purchased by the gunman from a coffee shop prior to the shooting. More:

Jared Isaacman planned two more missions with SpaceX, including Starship’s first crewed flight. Trump has thrown his Polaris Program into question.
SpaceX and its go-to billionaire-turned-private-astronaut seem to be going their separate ways, at least for the next four years.
Jared Isaacman has flown two SpaceX missions to space and is slated to fly two more.
However, Isaacman may no longer fly those missions now that President-elect Donald Trump has tapped him to lead NASA.
Isaacman is the founder and CEO of a payments-processing company called Shift4, but he’s more famous for conducting the world’s first commercial spacewalk in September.
The spacewalk was the main feature of the first mission of the Polaris Program, which Isaacman started in partnership with SpaceX to supercharge the company’s human-spaceflight capabilities as it aims for the moon and Mars.
The program is scheduled to fly two future missions, including the first human flight aboard SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket.
Isaacman has previously indicated that he would be on board that flight. It would be a crucial step in Elon Musk’s plans to establish a human settlement on Mars using Starship.
The NASA nomination throws that mission into uncertainty, Isaacman acknowledged on Wednesday.
“The future of the Polaris program is a little bit of a question mark at the moment. It may wind up on hold for a moment”, Isaacman said at the Spacepower 2024 conference in Orlando, according to Reuters.
Indeed, shortly after his nomination, experts told Business Insider that it was unlikely Isaacman would fly to space during his term as NASA Administrator.
“Well, it certainly has never happened before”, John Logsdon, the founder of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, told BI.
That doesn’t mean it can’t happen, but Logsdon added, “NASA Administrator is a full-time, high-level government job. Taking time off to train for and carry out another spaceflight seems to me to be a little implausible.”
If Isaacman wanted to fly a SpaceX mission during his NASA term, “that would take some thought on his part and the rest of the team”, George Nield, a former head of the FAA’s office of commercial space transportation, told BI. “What’s the risk, what’s the benefit, what happens if there’s a bad day, and are there succession plans?”
Nield co-authored a 2020 analysis which calculated that US spaceflight has a 1% fatal failure rate, because four out of nearly 400 spaceflights have ended in deadly malfunctions. That’s a rate 10,000 times greater than commercial airliners.
The US Senate has to confirm Isaacman’s nomination before he can take office.
“Having the boss of the enterprise take the risk of spaceflight would be unusual, but we live in unusual times”, Logsdon said.