Government
The $1.2 trillion budget package will now move to the Senate, which is expected to hold a vote next week.
“I don’t like established science,” ACIP chairperson Kirk Milhoan said in an interview on the Why Should I Trust You? podcast. “Science is what I observe.”
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said that the main thing getting in the way of changing vaccine discussions in the U.S. is the Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
The obesity market and Most Favored Nation drug pricing were among the topics de jour at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference last week, while smaller biotechs sought to assure investors that their regulatory ducks are in a row; Novo Nordisk’s oral obesity pill got off to a hot start while the FDA delayed a decision on Eli Lilly’s investigational offering; and SpyGlass Pharma and AgomAb Therapeutics join the 2026 IPO club.
AbbVie and Novartis strike billion-dollar pacts while attendees at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference await that one big M&A deal and Merck teases limitless buying capacity; Eli Lilly readies for potential orforglipron launch while Novo Nordisk laments compounders; the IPO window cracks open; and the FDA concludes that GLP-1s do not pose a suicide risk.
Novo Nordisk follows Christmas oral Wegovy approval with quick launch; Eli Lilly is headed for $94.3 billion in annual revenue by 2027, analysts predict; nine more pharmas strike Most Favored Nation deals but half remain unsigned; experts call for stability and rare disease action at FDA, and all eyes are on M&A ahead of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference next week.
The CDC accepted the recommendation of its advisory committee that the shot be delayed for many patients until they are at least two months of age due to safety concerns. The CDC itself has said the vaccine is safe and effective.
Eli Lilly’s retatrutide exceeds expectations in Phase III, capping off a sparkling 2025 for the obesity titan; an internal FDA safety review finds no confirmed pediatric deaths caused by COVID-19 vaccines, and Commissioner Marty Makary says no black box warning will be attached to the shots; and BioSpace looks at six biotechs that could be pharma’s next buy.
The FDA’s Vinay Prasad recently claimed in an internal memo that at least 10 children have died from coronavirus vaccines, but an internal safety review showed that the count was much lower.
With five CDER leaders in one year and regulatory proposals coming “by fiat,” the FDA is only making it more difficult to bring therapies to patients.
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