psychedelics
When Joe Rogan texts, Trump listens
Lobbyists often design complicated campaigns involving advertisements, political donations, messaging, and a lot of meeting requests. For Joe Rogan, all it took to spur the administration to action on a powerful psychedelic was a text to Trump, Daniel Payne reports.
Trump on Saturday signed an executive order directing the federal government to rush access to psychedelics and reevaluate their status as controlled substances.
Rogan texted Trump about ibogaine, a potentially risky drug. It can cause cardiac arrhythmias, and ibogaine sessions, often described as a "waking dreamlike state," last up to 36 hours.
“Sounds great,” Trump responded, according to Rogan. “Do you want FDA approval? Let’s do it.”
Read more from Elaine Chen about why even some who like what the administration is doing on psychedelic research worry about how the White House is doing it.
cdc
Cautious optimism
The public health world is cautiously optimistic about the president’s choice of Erica Schwartz to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Helen Branswell, Daniel, and Chelsea Cirruzzo.
Schwartz served as deputy surgeon general during the first Trump administration. She is a doctor, public health leader, and veteran with no public ties to the anti-vaccine movement.
But her supporters worry that Kennedy will shorten the leash on the CDC after the midterms. Read more.
gender-affirming care
District court rules against Kennedy’s gender declaration
A U.S. district judge in Oregon has officially ruled against Kennedy’s declaration that gender-affirming care does not meet medical standards. “Unserious leaders are unsafe,” Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai wrote. “Tragically, this case is one of a long list of examples of how a leader’s wanton disregard for the rule of law causes very real harm to very real people.”
During last month’s oral arguments, Kasubhai indicated he would rule in favor of the states that challenged Kennedy on the declaration. He concluded that Kennedy did not have the authority to issue such a sweeping assertion, calling it unlawful and prohibiting “any materially similar policy” that supersedes the plaintiff states’ standards of care.
The declaration was released in December alongside proposed rules that would leverage federal funding to stop gender-affirming care. But this decision doesn’t necessarily mean that those rules are dead on arrival. Unlike the declaration, those were proposed through more standard procedures, though Kasubhai’s decision will likely be cited in challenges to the rules if and when they’re finalized. — Theresa Gaffney
drug prices
Light reading
Bob Herman reviewed more than 500 letters received by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on its proposal to require PBMs to disclose a wide range of drug pricing information to employers.
Insurers and drug middlemen said the proposal is illegal. It was praised by Mark Cuban’s pharmacy and others in the business community who want middlemen to face more accountability. Drugmakers are glad that PBMs are the new target, but they want the administration to pull back on disclosure of drug pricing data.
Read more.
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