| | | |   | | | | | The White House is on the hunt for an ARPA-H director  Francis collins (Michael Reynolds/AP) Francis Collins is moving forward with the search for an inaugural ARPA-H director, and he thinks he knows where to look. In recent months, my colleague Lev Facher scoops, Collins has scoured the ranks of former officials in the biotechnology office of DARPA, the famed Pentagon research agency on which ARPA-H is modeled. Collins has spoken with at least four former DARPA officials about the position, Lev writes. The list includes neuroscientist Justin Sanchez, biologist Renee Wegrzyn, genomics researcher Brad Ringeisen, and materials scientist Alicia Jackson. Each of those candidates would have to be pried loose from the private sector. ARPA-H advocates, however, have long pushed for somebody from industry, as opposed to academia, to run the new agency — after all, it’s essentially going to function as the federal government’s own venture capital firm. You can read more here. | A guide to the latest drug pricing draft Democrats at long last unveiled the final (for now) text of their drug pricing reform package. It’s not a sure thing it will cross the finish line, but it is an assurance that if any domestic policy deal gets across the finish line, substantive drug pricing reform is going to be in it. The new bill mostly lines up with what Democrats agreed on last fall, but with a few notable changes that affect when patients see savings, how the drug development pipeline works, how certain patients will pay for insulin, and how the new prices would affect safety-net programs and Medicaid. I broke down all the nerdy stuff you need to know about the major reform in the pipeline in a new analysis this morning. And here’s the text so you can read it for yourself — of course, give me a shout if you see anything particularly interesting! | America must transition to value-based care to strengthen primary care and improve patient outcomes Value-based care reimburses health care professionals based on quality of care and patient outcomes instead of the volume of services – aiming to keep patients healthy rather than waiting until they get sick. Primary care physicians are the cornerstone of the health care system and are driving the conversation to move from fee-for-service to value-based care. It is time to elevate primary care and restore a health care system that prioritizes patient care above all else. | The FDA’s high-profile flip-flop on Juul The FDA’s dramatic stand against Juul lasted less than two weeks, as the agency this week decided to backtrack in embarrassing fashion, my colleague Nick Florko reports. It’s not the first time the FDA has backtracked on an effort to pull a vaping company off the market – it’s made similar decisions nearly a dozen times. But the consequences of the flip flop are much bigger with a high-profile company like Juul, which has been repeatedly chastised by lawmakers, advocates, and the press for its role in getting kids addicted to nicotine. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a prominent critic of vaping companies, called the move a sign of “ongoing incompetence” and a “deeply disappointing failure” from the FDA.
Did the FDA miss 6,000 pages of data? Why change course so quickly after two years of review? Nick breaks down the mystifying saga in a new story today. | What we're reading - Are tax-exempt hospitals giving back their fair share to communities? It depends on what you count, STAT
- How Pfizer won the pandemic, reaping outsize profit and influence, Kaiser Health News
- Estimates of long Covid are startlingly high. Here’s how to understand them, STAT
- U.S. allows pharmacists to prescribe Pfizer’s Covid-19 pill, Associated Press
- ‘A slippery slope’: Pfizer sells a contraceptive and donated to political groups that could come after the company, STAT
| Thanks for reading! More next week,  | | | |
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