fda
Looming infant formula crisis
A series of lawsuits jeopardizes the supply of neonatal infant formula, my colleague Lizzy Lawrence writes.
Lizzy presents a heart-rending situation. Preterm babies sometimes develop a condition that kills bowel tissue, which can lead to death. It hits rapidly, within hours.
Human milk reduces a baby's risk of developing the condition, but it's common for mothers of preterm babies to struggle to produce enough breast milk, so many rely on specialized infant formula.
Parents have sued the makers of specialized formulas, alleging that they increase the risk of the condition. Although three neonatologists told Lizzy there's no conclusive evidence that infant formula causes the condition, parents sometimes win the suits, and the makers or infant formula are considering exiting the market if they continue to lose.
drug pricing
Will the master dealmaker weaken his position?
Less than a week into President Trump's new term, the drug industry is urging the self-styled master dealmaker to weaken his ability to bargain lower drug prices in Medicare.
It would be politically difficult to get rid of the Medicare drug price negotiation program without an alternative, according to Darius Lakdawalla, the chief scientific officer at the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics. Instead, Lakdawalla proposes setting a price floor, a change backed by the drug industry. Setting a floor would reward companies for drugs that improve patients' lives, giving patients a seat at the negotiating table, he said.
On Friday, USC Schaeffer Institute nonresident Senior Scholar Joe Grogan invoked RFK Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again movement in proposing that Medicare exempt GLP-1 drugs from negotiation – Novo Nordisk's GLP-1 Ozempic is on the negotiation list. Last week, Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks also said industry shares RFK Jr.'s goal, and he suggested giving drugs more time on the market before subjecting them to negotiation.
government research
Confusion follows cancelled scientific meetings
Scientific events and panels across federal science agencies were canceled on Wednesday, adding to the unease among agency employees and outside researchers who were already uncertain about what the Trump administration might have in store for them.
STAT's Anil Oza reached an NIH spokesperson, who said the cancellations are part of a short pause to let the new administration "set up a process for review and prioritization."
It's also not clear whether the cancelled meetings are tied to the freeze on external communications.
Read Anil's article about which meetings have been cancelled and which ones seem to still be scheduled.
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