Policy
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s health department has consistently touted radical transparency as being key to its mission. Recent instances—the FDA’s decision not to disclose the recipients of three Commissioner’s National Priority Vouchers and FDA and CDC choices not to publish vaccine-related papers—call this intent into question.
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BioSpace looks back at 2025 and where the FDA is going in 2026.
While requests by government officials for anonymity when speaking to the media are nothing new, the practice attracts more scrutiny when the Department for Health and Human Services has pledged a commitment to “radical transparency.”
TrumpRX and DTC sales may expand prescription drug access, but they will not solve the affordability crisis by themselves.
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Monarez is the first CDC director to be confirmed by the Senate under a new 2023 law and will be the first person without a medical degree to assume leadership of the agency in more than 70 years.
Under the Inflation Reduction Act, medications with the same active ingredient will be treated as the same drug for price negotiation purposes—even if approved by the FDA under a separate application—disincentivizing companies from investing time and money in gaining approval for new formulations and indications.
The FDA’s dramatic summer continues to unfold as news broke late Tuesday evening that Vinay Prasad will depart the agency, where he had been the head of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research for less than three months.
Six weeks after HHS Secretary RFK Jr. cited unexplained conflicts of interest in dismissing all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee, Democrats are asking for details.
While some analysts forecast the tariffs could mean billions in additional industry expenditure, others expect the overall impact to be “manageable.”
In a post on X, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. alleged that the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has “devolved into a morass of inefficiency, favoritism, and outright corruption.”
The swift FDA action removes an overhang from Sarepta and allows Elevidys to return to the market without another safety study, as had been feared, Jefferies analysts said Monday.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to remove all members of the USPSTF for being too “woke,” according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal. An HHS spokesperson, however, says no final decision has been made about the panel.
While FDA Commissioner Marty Makary emphasizes learning and humility, the FDA has systematically removed the very experience that would make change possible.
The decision follows last month’s vote of the CDC’s revamped vaccine advisory committee. Thimerosal, mostly removed from vaccines decades ago, has long been a target of anti-vaccine advocates for unfounded links to autism and adverse health outcomes.