From Big Pharma鈥檚 tricky PR maneuvering on drug prices to potential purges of non-loyalists at the VA to (my personal favorite) the benefits of a four-day workweek, we have been overrun with health news this week.
Here鈥檚 what you need to know and might have missed:
Pharma鈥檚 once again grabbing headlines this week, as Novartis and Merck follow in Pfizer鈥檚 footsteps in lowering drug prices. But just as with Pfizer, there鈥檚 some fine print the companies probably don鈥檛 want you to read.
Novartis, for one, is in the middle of a scandal over its contract with President Donald Trump鈥檚 personal attorney (and more news just came out over the depth of that connection). So the good PR comes at quite a convenient time. And Merck鈥檚 choices of what prices to lower seem very strategic. (For example: It cut the cost of its hep C drug鈥� which had never gained traction in the U.S. anyway. The move could actually boost sales for the company.)
A whistleblower (with the FBI code name 鈥淧ampers鈥�!) exposes drug companies鈥� brazen and illegal maneuvering to get on Medicaid鈥檚 preferred drug list in this captivating must-read investigation from NPR and the Center for Public Integrity.
Uh, thanks but no thanks? The聽National Federation of Independent Business, after decades (decades!) of lobbying for association health plans, is now calling Trump鈥檚 offering unworkable. Not worth the effort to even set them up, it says.
There鈥檚 also been some movement that may reveal the administration鈥檚 plan to resume those payments to insurers it froze so abruptly recently.
A tidal wave of reassignments and retirements of Veterans Affairs employees perceived as disloyal to Trump is raising eyebrows this week right ahead of nominee Robert Wilkie鈥檚 likely confirmation ().
This is going to be a story that keeps cropping up over the next few months, but it鈥檚 still worth noting: There鈥檚 a health care wedge driving deeper and deeper into the Democratic Party, and it doesn鈥檛 seem likely to be resolved anytime soon. Progressives are gung-ho about 鈥淢edicare for All,鈥� while moderates insist on sticking with shoring up the health law.
Either choice is a gamble: The GOP is ready to go with counter-rhetoric for the former (like, 鈥淚t will break Medicare鈥�), while a big part of the Democratic base is tired of baby steps over the health law.
Getting funding for medical research is already a dog-eat-dog process, but with the immigration crisis burning through the Department of Health and Human Services鈥� money, advocates are worried about what public health programs are losing out because of it.
And if all that wasn鈥檛 enough news for you, here鈥檚 my miscellaneous file for the week: CRISPR gene-editing technology has had people salivating over miracle cures, but new studies are finding that it鈥檚 wreaking absolute havoc on patients鈥� DNA; experts are seeing disturbing parallels between today鈥檚 use of anti-anxiety meds and the early days of the opioid epidemic; if a couple who froze fertilized embryos splits up, who gets to make the decision if one of them wants to have the baby?; and there鈥檚 been a recent spate of classic psychological experiments that have been overturned. What does that say for the future of the study of the mind?
Now what you鈥檝e all been waiting for: 聽has proven so successful, the firm that ran it wants to make the change permanent. Go ahead, send this story around!