Pharma locks in on North Carolina

The pharmaceutical industry has lost some longtime allies in recent years. By the looks of it, executives and lobbyists are looking to North Carolina to make some new ones, according to federal campaign finance disclosures. Recall that a freshman Democratic lawmaker from North Carolina, Rep. Don Davis, was willing to stick his neck out and sponsor a policy to water down Democrats' drug pricing reform bill earlier this year.

Another North Carolina Democrat caught industry's eye last quarter: Rep. Deborah Ross, who is a member of House Democratic leadership as chief deputy whip and is on the caucus' steering and policy committee. Ross received campaign donations in May from the CEOs of Merck, Eli Lilly, Biogen, Gilead, Bristol Myers Squibb, Genentech, and UCB, as well as a donation from PhRMA's COO and PAC contributions from Eisai and Genentech.

Rep. Richard Hudson, a North Carolina Republican who serves on the House Energy & Commerce Committee's health panel, also attracted campaign donations last quarter from Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks, PhRMA CEO Stephen Ubl, PhRMA General Counsel Jim Stansel, PhRMA COO Lori Reilly, Bristol Myers Squibb's PAC, and Genentech CEO Ashley Magargee.

investigations

The dangers of a colossus like UnitedHealth

UnitedHealth has been aggressively acquiring doctors' clinics. And the STAT dream team of Bob Herman, Tara Bannow, Casey Ross & Lizzy Lawrence reveal the untold story of how the massive insurer squeezes the doctors it works with for profit.

Physicians told them on the record how UnitedHealth pressured them to make patients look sicker than they actually were to make more money off of taxpayer-funded health care programs. The practice, called upcoding, could have cost the government tens of billions of dollars, by STAT's estimates.

Doctors also said they felt pressure to see more patients in less time, and patients complained of longer wait times because clinics acquired by UnitedHealth weren't reserving some time to see sick patients during the day. Read the first installment in a series titled "Health Care's Colossus" here.

agencies

Live long and prosper, Jeff Shuren 🖖

After a 28-year career at the FDA, the agency's head of medical devices Jeffrey Shuren is leaving, my colleague Lizzy Lawrence reported.

Shuren is fresh off finalizing a controversial rule to actively regulate lab-developed tests, which is currently caught up in court. He also created the breakthrough devices program, and increased the FDA's annual number of device authorizations five-fold. He earned applause from industry for making the approval process more transparent, as well as some criticism from patient advocates over safety and efficacy data.

Shuren's departure email, which Lizzy obtained, was chock-full of Star Trek references. It's not clear yet what Shuren's plans are post-FDA. If you have any tips, tell Lizzy!

china

Even Heritage is lobbying on BIOSECURE

The list of trade groups, companies, and universities lobbying on the BIOSECURE Act continues to grow, and now even the conservative think tank Heritage is getting in on the action, my colleague John Wilkerson reports. The bill would penalize companies for doing business with five Chinese companies, including WuXi AppTec and WuXi Biologics.

A diverse group started lobbying on the bill in the second quarter of this year, according to lobbying disclosure records. That makes sense given how much both drugmakers and universities rely on WuXi for an extensive list of services.

Vanderbilt University, University of Michigan, and Memorial Sloan Kettering listed the bill in their lobbying disclosures. Others now lobbying on the bill include the Swiss multinational contract manufacturer Lonza, National Association of Manufacturers, Business Roundtable, Association for Accessible Medicines, Pharma & Biopharma Outsourcing Association, and WuXi Biologics.

health tech

How would Kamala Harris regulate health tech?

What do we know about presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris' stance on health tech issues? Not a lot, right now — experts STAT's Brittany Trang and Lizzy Lawrence contacted largely expected her stances to be similar to Biden's.

Harris has been the face of the Biden administration at a few different AI events, including former U.K. prime minister Rishi Sunak's Global Summit on AI Safety last year. On that trip, she announced the United States AI Safety Institute. She's also secured voluntary commitments from companies including OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google to develop AI technology safely, as well as met with civil rights and labor leaders about AI risks.

How Harris' history of representing Silicon Valley in Congress might factor into a potential presidency is unclear at this point, but Transcarent CEO Glen Tullman thought her record of supporting telehealth is promising.

"A Harris Administration would aggressively support digital health technologies as a way to improve health equity and affordable access to care, at home," Tullman told STAT in an email.

A version of this newsletter item also appeared in the STAT Health Tech newsletter. Sign up here.

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