Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
FDA Plans Continued Support For Overseas Baby Formula Imports
Federal health regulators are devising plans that would let overseas baby formula makers market their products in the U.S. long term beyond the current baby formula shortage. To ease shortages of baby formula, the Food and Drug Administration has been temporarily allowing foreign manufacturers to ship their products to the U.S. (Armour, 7/6)
In other pharmaceutical news 鈥
The Food and Drug Administration and Juul agreed Wednesday to put their court fight on hold while the government reopens its review of the company鈥檚 electronic cigarettes. The agreement comes one day after the FDA placed a hold on its initial order banning Juul鈥檚 products from the market, saying that Juul鈥檚 application warranted 鈥渁dditional review.鈥 (Perrone, 7/7)
Illinois-based AbbVie Inc. makes the bulk of its profits from arthritis drug Humira on sales in the U.S., but the company reports almost all its taxable income in foreign subsidiaries, according to a Senate Finance Committee report that criticizes the pharmaceutical company鈥檚 use of entities in Bermuda and Puerto Rico to reduce its tax burden. (Rubin, 7/7)
On drug prices 鈥
Senate Democrats have put final tweaks on their drug pricing proposal, as they race to achieve one of their signature domestic policy promises ahead of the midterm elections. (Cohrs, 7/7)
KHN: Seeking To Kick-Start Biden鈥檚 Agenda, Schumer Unveils A Bill For Medicare Drug Price Negotiations聽
Democratic senators on Wednesday took a formal step toward reviving President Joe Biden鈥檚 economic agenda, starting with a measure to let Medicare negotiate prices with drugmakers and to curb rising drug costs more broadly. A similar proposal died in December when Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) decided to oppose Biden鈥檚 $1.9 trillion Build Back Better bill, which also included provisions allowing for Medicare drug negotiations. (McAuliff, 7/7)
In science news 鈥
Doctors at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have concluded that a man who received a first-of-its-kind pig-heart transplant in January died two months later of heart failure. The reasons for the failure remain under investigation. The man, David Bennett, was able to get out of bed, begin rehabilitation and spend time with his family in the weeks after the transplant at the University of Maryland Medical Center. His doctors say that makes the effort a success. (Cohn, 7/6)
The White House is zeroing in on former DARPA officials as candidates to lead the Biden administration鈥檚 new high-stakes science agency, ARPA-H. (Facher, 7/7)