In a budget proposal sure to spark opposition, the Trump administration has proposed to provide the National Institutes of Health with only $38 billion in fiscal 2021, several billion dollars short of the agency’s funding for the current fiscal year. The proposal also calls for funding of less than $95 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services, a 10% reduction in funding that includes an adjustment for drug pricing proposals and a $5 million cut to FDA monies for the 21st Century Cures Act.
A half-day open meeting intended to examine “how the public perceives and values pharmaceutical quality,” convened by the Robert J. Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University in cooperation with the FDA, included a rundown of the agency’s oversight program, results of surveys to measure viewpoints of patients and providers – and tart commentary from a two-member “reactant panel.”
Touting the efforts his administration already has taken to lower U.S. prescription drug prices through increased competition, President Donald Trump placed the burden for further action squarely on Congress during his State of the Union address Tuesday, Feb. 4.
Now that U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar has declared a nationwide public health emergency due to the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), HHS is saying it may need more money to help it be as proactive and aggressive as possible in detecting the virus and containing an outbreak.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has declared a public health emergency in the U.S. over the coronavirus in part because a government diagnostic for the virus yields inconsistent results, a fact that may spur the life sciences to provide a solution.
Despite pressure from several lawmakers to declare the new coronavirus a U.S. public health emergency, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar said such a declaration isn’t needed, at least not yet.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has significantly relaxed the national restrictions on coverage of next-generation sequencing for cancer, affirming that early-stage breast and ovarian cancer patients will be covered. However, Medicare administrative contractors can cover tests that have not been reviewed by the FDA, a move that should also significantly boost utilization for makers of next-generation sequencing systems in clinical labs.
The patent subject matter eligibility problem has rattled the world of diagnostics for several years, but the U.S. Senate has been silent about legislation in recent months. Patent attorney Michael Borella, of McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP (MBHB), said he does not expect Congress to provide any legislative fix to the problem any time soon.
Combination products with digital interfaces. Antibody-drug conjugates. Complex drugs. Synthetic biologics. They’re all examples of how technology is expanding the ambit of what’s considered a drug beyond the current U.S. binary regulatory system of small molecules and biologics.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Just as it does with treatments, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) offers detailed guidelines on genomic testing by cancer type. These are key in determining what physicians can prescribe routinely and what insurers will cover. But those guidelines aren’t followed regularly outside a major research hospital setting, thereby obviating access to tumor genetic information that could help to better guide treatment. Even if current guidelines are followed, physicians and patients can get information back from the tests that neither party is prepared to process.