The U.S. Supreme Court preserved the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force coverage mandate that requires payers to cover certain preventive services at no cost to patients in a 6-3 ruling. That’s very good news for many diagnostics companies including Exact Sciences Corp. and Guardant Health Inc. as well as companies that manufacture HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PReP) medications such as Gilead Sciences Inc.

Industry’s reaction to the U.S. FDA’s draft guidance for remote regulatory assessments included a request for more clarity on when the agency would issue a post-assessment report, but the final guidance makes clear the FDA sees no compelling reason to issue such a report in every instance.

Industry’s reaction to the U.S. FDA’s draft guidance for remote regulatory assessments included a request for more clarity on when the agency would issue a post-assessment report, but the final guidance makes clear the FDA sees no compelling reason to issue such a report in every instance.

Despite the controversies swirling around the June meeting of the U.S. CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP), the reconstituted committee delivered good news to Merck & Co. Inc. when it voted 5-2 June 26 to recommend that infants younger than 8 months who are not protected by maternal vaccination get one dose of a monoclonal as they head into their first respiratory syncytial virus season.

A June 25 hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives highlighted some of the health care spending benefits of remote patient monitoring, but Medicare payment is seen as deficient – a problem that may be resolved by pending legislation.

Although the U.S. CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) was scheduled to vote June 25 on recommendations for maternal and pediatric respiratory syncytial virus vaccines, it adjourned by pushing that vote to the second day of the meeting. But before leaving for the day, it got an earful of comments from pediatricians, nurses and even a retired FDA scientist urging the CDC to reinstate the 17 committee members Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy dismissed two weeks earlier and replaced with eight new members.

The Department of Health and Human Services and private payers have promised to streamline the controversial prior authorization processes in a bid to reduce the attendant controversies.

The June 25-26 meeting of the U.S. CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) will be anything but business as usual. In wiping the slate clean just two weeks before the panel was to meet, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy made sure of that.