The Trump-RFK mind-meld on vaccines

RFK is pivoting, in more ways than one. The until-recently independent presidential candidate is on Trump's transition team, earning ire and concern from some conservatives. But he's also recasting his longtime vaccine skepticism as not anti-vaxx ideology but a broad concern for children's welfare and chronic health issues.

The potent combination of Kennedy's longtime vaccine theories and former president Trump's openness to them could spell a new era for immunization policy, Isabella Cueto and I write.

The two already discussed vaccine safety in a leaked video from earlier this year, and Kennedy claims Trump considered him for an advisory role in his first term. The former president has shown more interest in the (unproven) link between chronic diseases and childhood immunizations this time around, and he's promised that in a second administration he'd establish a presidential commission "charged with investigating what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic illnesses." More from Isa and me.

drug pricing

Harris touts Biden drug pricing record

VP Kamala Harris sat down with CNN last Thursday for a long-awaited interview on her campaign priorities and work in the Biden presidency. While the talk with Dana Bash spanned economics, border policy and energy initiatives, Harris made an effort to highlight Biden's health care record.

She defended the president's 'Bidenomics' plan by deploying the IRA's moves on Medicare drug prices and insulin cost caps: "Donald Trump said he was gonna do a number of things, including allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Never happened. We did it."

Pressed about her policy shifts since the 2019 campaign, Harris also said "my values have not changed." The Trump campaign has argued in recent weeks that they very much have: Not just with border control, as was discussed in the interview, but Harris' abandonment of Medicare for All this year.

The VP "has flip-flopped on her positions" a Trump campaign spokesperson said last month. (Trump, by the way, has called M4A a communist plan).

STAT INVESTIGATION

After care of acquisitions: A STAT investigation

Almost 10 years after UnitedHealth bought ProHealth Physicians, the primary care network is a shell of its former self. Doctors are retiring earlier than they planned, or leaving for competing practices. Patients with serious medical conditions struggle to make appointments, while others complain of mysterious diagnoses popping up in their charts.

Disillusioned, many patients are leaving, as my colleagues report in the latest installment of their deep dive on UnitedHealth's seismic growth, aggressive business model, and impact on the health care industry.

The STAT team examined the aftermath of UnitedHealth's acquisition of ProHealth to understand the human cost, on physicians and patients, of the conglomerate's strategy of gobbling up physician practices nationwide. The health care colossus has brought roughly 90,000 physicians under its control over the past 20 years — 1 in 10 U.S. doctors — and has leveraged those physicians, as well as its position as the largest Medicare Advantage insurer, to maximize profits. Dive into the saga with Lizzy Lawrence, Casey Ross, Bob Herman and Tara Bannow. And don't miss parts one and two of the series.

eye on fda

The Ozempic shortage is working for Hims. What happens when it ends?

Hims & Hers, one of the largest publicly traded telehealth companies in the country, has supercharged its business in the last several months by offering compounded versions of the patented weight loss drugs known as GLP-1s. It's staking its future on the drugs, with plans to continue selling compounded GLP-1s even when shortages of the versions approved by regulators come to an end — a strategy that policy experts say could land the company in court, Katie Palmer and Nick Florko write.

The problem: Compounders are allowed to sell versions of FDA-approved drugs when those drugs are in shortage. That has regularly been the case lately with GLP-1 drugs marketed by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. But legal challenges from GLP-1 manufacturers Lilly and Novo, or a crackdown by the FDA, could bring the party to an end — with implications for a slew of telehealth companies that have built their business on the high-demand diabetes and obesity medications, and the patients who have flooded online to access them.

Hims' plan to continue selling compounded GLP-1s turns on several highly technical FDA guidelines spawned in 2012. More from Katie and Nick.

More around STAT

Check out more exclusive coverage with a STAT+ subscription

Read premium in-depth biotech, pharma, policy, and life science coverage and analysis with all of our STAT+ articles.

What we're reading

Opinion: The alliance between RFK Jr. and Trump all comes down to their health-related worldview, STAT
Elon Musk, eyeing edge for Trump, hires Republican political adviser, The New York Times
These middlemen say they keep drug prices low. California lawmakers don't buy it, Cal Matters
Los Angeles County: the epicenter of urban maternity ward closings, STAT