GOP debate is light on health care, except for abortion

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AP Photo/Morry Gash

If last night's debate is any indication, the Republican Party doesn't have a ton of new health care ideas.

They did spar over abortion policy, and my colleagues Sarah Owermohle and Lizzy Lawrence break down the candidates' debates over just how far the party should go on national abortion bans. Some candidates framed the issue as a moral issue that should be regulated nationwide, while others demurred, saying that elected officials in states should make those decisions.

And longtime biotech reporter Damian Garde explains how Vivek Ramaswamy's polarizing persona has its roots in his career selling his ability to outfox pharmaceutical giants and find hidden value in overlooked medicines.

in the courts

A totally different issue for Ron DeSantis

It didn't come up in the debate, but Florida Gov. and GOP presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis wants to import Canadian prescription drugs. My colleague John Wilkerson reports this morning that the odds for that effort just got longer.

Biden's FDA "identified several deficiencies," in the drug-import plan, according to a recent FDA filing in a lawsuit that Florida filed against the agency for allegedly taking too long to review the state's plan. Despite its thousands of pages, the plan does not show whether it meets the two overarching requirements of saving money and securing the drug supply chain, the agency said. The FDA gave the state until Monday to flesh out those two subjects.

"If Florida submits the requested materials by August 28, 2023, or declines to provide any further materials, FDA still anticipates issuing a decision on Florida's SIP proposal by October 31, 2023," the FDA states in a court filing. Read more.

drug pricing

Drug makers undeterred by price hike penalties

The Inflation Reduction Act hasn't necessarily tamped down drug price hikes, my colleague Simar Bajaj wrote in a new STAT analysis out this morning.

On July 1, drugmakers raised the wholesale price on over 123 drugs — the largest number of mid-year price hikes since 2013, according to drug pricing data. The median price increase for these drugs was 3.4%, just above the one-year inflation rate of 3.2%.

KFF's Juliette Cubanski said that penalties could lead to lower cost-sharing for Medicare beneficiaries, but "I don't know whether we would call that a success because that's a sign that manufacturers are not showing that much regard for the financial disincentive." Read more.

science

ARPA-H jumps on mRNA dogpile

President Biden's fledgling health agency is designed to accelerate under-funded research, but it's set its sights on an area where the drug industry is already making multibillion-dollar investments, Damian and Sarah write.

The White House announced Wednesday that the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health would bankroll a $24 million project by Emory University to build messenger RNA platforms to target "cancer and other diseases," investing in the technology behind the U.S.'s most commonly used vaccines for Covid-19. But BioNTech and Moderna have already said that cancer is their next target.

Read more, including how ARPA-H Director Renee Wergzyn is hoping to leverage a unique relationship with the FDA.

drug shortages

Not FDA's problem

FDA Commissioner Rob Califf said Tuesday that the agency cannot fix the fundamental cause of drug shortages of chemotherapies and other drugs.

Califf's comments during an Alliance for a Stronger FDA event are interesting in light of the debate that's brewing between Republicans and Democrats over how to fix the drug shortage crisis. Democrats in the House want to give the FDA more authority. Republicans want to deal with what they say are the underlying economic causes, and they're wary of giving the FDA more power. The White House task force on drug shortages hasn't stepped in to referee.

The FDA can help plug holes when shortages occur, Califf said, and the agency is getting better at that. He also said the agency needs better information from drug makers to understand what's happening in the supply chain. But he said the fundamental cause of drug shortages are economic.

"It's not the FDA's job to fix that," Califf said.

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