During the Republican National Convention on Monday, speakers praised President Trump's response to America's coronavirus epidemic, and Republican Party delegates officially nominated Trump as the Party's 2020 presidential candidate, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Georgia, Massachusetts, and North Carolina.
- Georgia: Emory Healthcare has named Dane Peterson as its new president, effective Sept. 1. Peterson currently serves as Emory's COO and will retain that position while also serving as the health system's president. Peterson has previously held positions as Emory Healthcare's hospital group president and as COO and CEO of Emory University Hospital Midtown (Gooch, Becker's Hospital Review, 8/20).
- Massachusetts: Johnson & Johnson (J&J) last week announced that it has purchased Momenta Pharmaceuticals for around $6.5 billion. The purchase gives J&J access to nipocalimab, part of a class of experimental drugs known as FcRn antibodies that are being studied as potential treatments for a variety of rare autoimmune diseases. Analysts said the purchase "secures one of the most clinically advanced FcRn antibodies, and is likely to accelerate development for this molecule," the Wall Street Journal reports (Loftus/Kellaher, Wall Street Journal, 8/19).
- North Carolina: During the Republican National Convention, which is being hosted partially in person at the Charlotte Convention Center and partially virtually because of America's coronavirus epidemic, Republican Party delegates on Monday officially nominated President Trump as the party's 2020 presidential candidate. In addition, many speakers at the convention on Monday praised Trump's response to the coronavirus epidemic, saying he forcefully responded to the virus and "moved mountains" to save lives. Donald Trump Jr., the president's son, said Trump "acted quickly" when the novel coronavirus started spreading in the United States "and ensured ventilators got to hospitals that needed them most." According to Politico, those comments run counter to claims from "numerous public health experts" who have argued that Trump has "failed … to mount a coordinated national response" to and effectively contain the epidemic (Martin et. al., New York Times, 8/24; Kenen, Politico, 8/25; Subramanian, USA Today, 8/25; Olson, Fox News, 8/24).