The U.S. mid-term elections are over and the 116th Congress will be sworn in to start the new year, but the changing of the guard in the House of Representatives is likely to ramp up the scrutiny on drugmakers, particularly on the question of pricing. In contrast, the impact of the Democratic Party's takeover of the House of Representatives on the regulation of drugs, devices and diagnostics may prove negligible, suggesting that federal government agencies will sustain the associated deregulatory effort that commenced in January 2017.