Trump's favorite drug pricing policy

Since his first term, Trump has promised to lower U.S. drug prices to levels charged in other rich countries. On Friday, the administration announced most-favored nation deals with nine more drugmakers. Then CMS proposed two mandatory MFN pilot programs in Medicare.

The nine new voluntary pacts share many characteristics with the previous agreements, according to Daniel Payne, including an exemption from pharmaceutical tariffs for three years. (Only three of the 17 drugmakers from which Trump demanded price cuts have yet to reach deals.)

Details of the new agreements are sparse. But the administration filled in a big information gap with the proposal of the Medicare pilot programs. Daniel and I wrote about those demonstrations in a separate story.

Read more for the details and the rationale for why these proposals might be more likely to survive lawsuits than the one Trump attempted during his first term.

And read about a new aspect of the new drugmaker agreements: national security stockpiling.

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Personnel is policy, and FDA personnel keeps changing

It was quite a year at the FDA. Several high-profile officials left, and the turnover has been most evident at the drug center, where five directors have come and gone. There were feuds among agency leaders, accusations of politicization, and low morale amid the loss of thousands of employees to layoffs and resignations.

Lizzy Lawrence wrote about what 2026 may bring.

With the fate of Commissioner Marty Makary up in the air, the uncertainty over next year starts at the top. An inconsistent regulatory philosophy further complicates efforts to divine the FDA's future.

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Politicizing priority drug reviews

Lizzy also wrote about how politically appointed officials have exerted control over an FDA program meant to speed product reviews. Historically, the FDA has tried to keep political considerations from influencing drug reviews.

Lizzy spoke to six government officials to deliver a previously unreported account of political influence over priority review vouchers, extending all the way to the White House.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has argued that FDA regulators were previously "captured" by industry and that only he could end industry influence. Read more about how Makary's priority review voucher initiative has given industry, and politics, more sway at the agency.

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Did I mention that personnel is policy?

Another person with ties to Kennedy will oversee research into adverse childhood experiences, Daniel wrote.

William Thompson, who recently advised Kennedy on vaccine policy, will be in charge of aligning research on adverse childhood events with Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again agenda, according to documents that Daniel reviewed. He will also lead students and fellows in their research work.

A longtime CDC employee, Thompson gained fame in the anti-vaccine movement as a whistleblower who argued that public health leaders omitted data showing a correlation between the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and autism.

What we're reading

An advocate who offered a window on the experience of living with brain cancer dies at 43, STAT
Truemed, a wellness company with Trump ties, raises $34 million, Bloomberg
American food safety could be headed for a breakdown, STAT
RFK Jr. wanted to endorse the Danish vaccine schedule. He was forced to pull back, Politico
Opinion: What Ozempic might tell us about the future of Alzheimer's, STAT
Mass General Brigham bolstered its bottom line. Other Mass. hospital groups reported multimillion losses, The Boston Globe