When the U.S. CMS didn’t get takers for its voluntary Better Approaches to Lifestyle and Nutrition for Comprehensive Health (BALANCE) model to cover obesity drugs under Medicare Part D, the agency punted. It announced late April 21 that it will indefinitely delay the BALANCE model in Medicare but extend its temporary Medicare GLP-1 Bridge demonstration model through the end of 2027. (The Medicaid BALANCE model will still kick in this year in states that choose to participate in it.)
Another biopharma acquisition is at the heart of one of the U.S. SEC’s latest insider trading settlements. This time, the trading centered on Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc’s $935 million purchase of Chimerix Inc. last year.
Ever since Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. sued Eli Lilly and Co. several years ago, claiming Lilly’s migraine drug, Emgality (galcanezumab), infringed its headache treatment patents, the two companies have been on a litigation rollercoaster.
Timothy Leary is dead, but he could be on the outside looking in with a smile on his face as U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest executive order (EO) fuels a surge in investment in companies researching and developing psychedelic drugs to treat mental health issues. The EO, Accelerating medical treatments for serious mental illness, is intended to address the increasing burden of suicide and serious mental illness, which impacts more than 14 million Americans.
As U.S. President Donald Trump’s third nominee for CDC director, Erica Schwartz will soon find out if three times really is a charm. Trump announced the nomination on social media April 16, touting Schwartz’s credentials for the job. Calling her “incredibly talented,” Trump cited her “distinguished career” as a military doctor, in the Navy and Coast Guard, and her service as deputy surgeon general during his first term in office.
U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert Kennedy made his first stop April 16 on a congressional tour in support of President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal 2027 budget, which would reduce discretional spending for HHS and its agencies by about 12%.
Despite key vacancies, ongoing staffing challenges and policy issues at the U.S. CDC, FDA and NIH, some of the regulatory churn that roiled those agencies in the first year of the second Trump administration is settling a bit, at least in terms of the number of executive orders (EOs) coming out of the Oval Office.
If a recent warning letter is anything to go by, the U.S. FDA could be using the 2013 Drug Supply Chain Security Act as another enforcement tool to shut down unauthorized suppliers by clamping down on the dispensers that purchase their unapproved drug products.
The U.S. FDA sent out a friendly reminder to more than 2,200 sponsors and researchers, associated with more than 3,000 clinical trials, who may be delinquent in disclosing the results of those studies on clinicaltrials.gov.
Amending his previous two-year-renewal of the standard charter for the U.S. CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy made monitoring adverse vaccine events a primary function of the committee and expanded its liaison membership to include organizations that have challenged vaccine safety.>
