Do state laws requiring drug companies to give steep 340B drug discounts to an unlimited number of contract pharmacies, with no claims data required, interfere with a longstanding contract between the U.S. Congress and biopharma? Or do such laws merely flex states’ authority over pharmacy practices such as delivery?
A five-year reauthorization of the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer programs is just the president’s signature, or a few days, away.
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya is being fact-checked on his off-the cuff responses at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing in February. The fact-checkers are nine Democratic lawmakers from Massachusetts, only one of whom (Sen. Ed Markey) is on the committee and attended the hearing. In fact, seven of those signing the March 17 letter that questioned Bhattacharya’s veracity aren’t senators. They serve in the House.
At the current pace of innovation in the U.S. rare disease space, developing and approving therapies for just half of the 10,000-plus known rare diseases would take more than 160 years, Bradley Campbell, president and CEO of Amicus Therapeutics Inc., recently told the Senate Committee on Aging.
U.S. scrutiny of China’s trade practices, especially in the biotech sector, continues to escalate as the U.S. International Trade Commission launches two factfinding investigations Congress mandated in the fiscal 2026 appropriations.
A lot of distance lies between talking regulatory flexibility and actually being flexible. That message was driven home again after Uniqure NV disclosed in its latest earnings report March 2 that the U.S. FDA wants a sham-controlled study before it will consider approval of the company’s gene therapy AMT-130 in Huntington’s, a rare disease currently affecting about 41,000 people in the U.S.
U.S. scrutiny of China’s trade practices, especially in the biotech sector, continues to escalate as the U.S. International Trade Commission launches two factfinding investigations Congress mandated in the fiscal 2026 appropriations.
At a recent Cabinet meeting, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert Kennedy reportedly said he expected Trumprx to probably go live within 10 days. That was Jan. 29, two days before HHS was once again forced to shut down many of its activities due to a congressional gridlock over a fiscal 2026 appropriations package to keep the department and several others open beyond Jan. 30.
After the U.S. House passed a package of spending bills Jan. 22 to fund several agencies and departments, including Health and Human Services, through fiscal 2026, the Senate was expected to quickly follow suit to ensure that no part of the federal government would shut down when the current continuing resolution expires Jan. 30. That was before a confrontation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota turned deadly over the weekend.
The U.S. NIH may be weathering the budget storm thanks to bipartisan congressional support, but another squall line is forming on the horizon over politicization of the research agency.
