RFK Jr. flip flops on HHS cuts, as Republicans avoid tough questions

Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified in front of two Congressional committees yesterday.

At a hearing of the Senate health committee, he swung between defending the recent sweeping changes at HHS and backtracking on aspects of the agency overhaul. When lawmakers confronted him on the impacts of specific layoffs and funding cuts, Kennedy at times demurred or appeared confused about the fallout. Read more.

When he appeared before the House Appropriations Committee, Republicans pushed back on some aspects of his MAHA agenda, but they largely focused on peripheral issues — not the proposed HHS budget cuts, the recent mass firings, or the long-running controversy regarding his stance on vaccines that Democrats have focused on. Read more.

regulation

Califf blasts RFK Jr. for downplaying vaccine comments

Meanwhile, at STAT's Breakthrough Summit West in San Francisco, former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf criticized RFK Jr.'s comments at the hearings.

When Kennedy appeared before the House Appropriations Committee, he said his opinions about vaccines were "irrelevant" and that it's not his job to give medical advice. But Califf pushed back.

"His opinions are not irrelevant," the former commissioner said. "He is the leader of Health and Human Services in the United States of America. That's the most powerful position in the world for health advocacy."

One area Califf did seem optimistic about was the FDA's current push to incorporate generative AI into the product review process. The FDA announced it would launch the technology agency-wide by June 30 in order to free reviewers from "tedious, repetitive tasks."

pharma

Lilly, AstraZeneca deemed to have top R&D programs

A new report has ranked Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca as the most innovative and inventive drug companies, respectively.

The annual assessment, conducted by U.K.-based IDEA Pharma, ranks drug company R&D programs on two different sets of criteria: innovation, which takes into account revenue from new products, new drug approvals, and major drug development events; and invention, which looks at the number of drugs a company has in development, its clinical trials, and its R&D investment, among other factors.

The rankings can dramatically shift year to year. For example, last year, Novo Nordisk was at the top of the "innovation" list, but this year, it ranks ninth. The consultancy noted that Lilly moved to the top of the list due to its rival GLP-1 drug, sold as Mounjaro for diabetes and Zepbound for obesity, and to the progress it's made in Alzheimer's.