CONGRESS
Bernie's big insulin show
Here's something you won't hear often when Sen. Bernie Sanders talks about drugmakers and the pricing middlemen: They're right. That is, they're right for blaming each other for high drug costs.
"Both of them share major responsibility for the outrageously high prices that we pay," he told STAT in a brief interview ahead of tomorrow's hearing on high insulin costs, which will bring executives from the three major insulin makers and three biggest pharmacy benefit managers before the Senate health committee.
However it sounds like senators' plans to cap insulin costs are still mired in debate. So is a potential amendment — which would let the FDA share more information with generic drugmakers — that derailed a markup last week. Sanders pretty pointedly told STAT he supports that amendment — and a bunch of Republicans used to, too. Read more here.
CONGRESS
Getting called to the principal's office?
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has called a meeting with Senate Democrats on the HELP committee on Wednesday before the Wednesday hearing with executives of insulin manufacturers and PBMs, four lobbyists told STAT.
No official agenda was provided, but the committee's meltdown over bipartisan tweaks to policy governing PBMs and generic drug development last week likely didn't bring a smile to the majority leader's face. They'll get another chance to pass the legislation at a committee markup on Thursday.
CDC
Walensky departs as Covid response winds down
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky's abrupt announcement Thursday that she would be leaving the agency in June was met with some surprise and some nods of improvement because of her at-times tumultuous tenure.
Both the White House and the CDC dispatched statements announcing her departure within minutes of an emotional staff meeting where she talked about her two years navigating the agency through the Covid-19 response and other challenges. She'll leave before the findings of a Covid response review, ordered by her, are issued, for one.
But it seems not everyone was briefed on the departure. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra issued a statement four and a half hours after the White House, followed a few minutes later by ASPR Dawn O'Connell, who called Walensky one of her "closest allies" in the fight against Covid, mpox and other potential viral threats.
ON THE HILL
The debt ceiling showdown
President Biden meets today with both parties' top brass in the Congress to try and hammer out a deal that avoids crashing the country into its debt limit next month. In the center of talks is a House-passed bill that would raise the limit but impose deep cuts on federal spending that Senate Democrats (and the White House) have already promised to oppose.
A whole range of cost-cutting measures are on the table, but for D.C.D. readers, it's Medicaid work requirements we're keeping an eye on. Roughly 1.7 million Medicaid enrollees nationwide could lose coverage if the bill is passed, according to a KFF analysis released last week. Some of the hardest-hit programs would be in the Rust Belt and New England, where state health officials have struggled to curb high opioid overdose rates.
There's not a ton of optimism around the hill heading into the meeting. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has already told Biden he's backing the House Republicans, according to a Politico report Monday. Plus Democrats haven't introduced alternatives to bring down spending.
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