Government
Senators Bill Cassidy and Bernie Sanders asked HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to make good on a pledge to appear before the committee regularly. It is not clear if or when the hearing, which was scheduled for Thursday, will take place.
Under Friday’s final ruling anti-obesity medications for weight-loss will remain ineligible for Medicare coverage.
Kennedy, a long-time opponent of vaccines, stated that the MMR vaccine is “the most effective way” to combat the measles outbreak, which has already claimed the lives of two children in the U.S.
While it’s not unusual for certain positions to turn over with a new administration, the number of senior-level FDA staffers who have recently left the agency is unprecedented. The lack of communication, transparency and human decency is as well.
The FDA derives just under half of its yearly funding from pharma user fees, which help support its operations and fund employee salaries. An analysis from AgencyIQ suggests that the agency is dangerously close to losing it all.
The FDA was scheduled to release its decision on Novavax’s updated, protein-based COVID-19 vaccine on April 1, but the agency’s principal deputy commissioner intervened.
Pharma’s reprieve from Donald Trump’s tariffs is expected to be temporary, with Leerink analysts anticipating possible sector-specific duties “in the next month or so.”
Following the dramatic late-night resignation of Peter Marks last Friday, Steele, a senior advisor to the division, takes the reins in a department inside an agency beset by cuts, layoffs, and confusion.
Trump has repeatedly called April 2 “Liberation Day,” alluding to a more sweeping and aggressive set of tariffs. Leerink Partners analysts said that the risks from Trump’s tariffs on the biopharma industry are “underappreciated.”
Nearly two dozen states on Tuesday sued the Department of Health and Human Services over a planned $11 billion funding cut for public health projects while New Jersey Senator Cory Booker spoke for 25 hours in protest of Trump administration policies.
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