fda
Budget news nuggets
There are lots of new policy ideas in the budget, including a couple proposed by the Food and Drug Administration that caught our eye. They’re aimed at encouraging domestic development and manufacturing of drugs.
The administration is worried about early drug development moving to China, where regulations are less strict and companies can start testing in humans faster. Foreign drug manufacturing also is a concern, and President Trump has used the threat of tariffs to get companies to invest in U.S. manufacturing.
The FDA budget justification proposes to make it easier to run early-stage trials in the U.S., which was praised by venture capitalists and biotech lobbyists, and to hand an advantage to domestic generics manufacturers. Read more from me and Lizzy Lawrence.
HHS
Three double-headers for RFK Jr.
Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is scheduled to appear before six congressional committees, two each on three days, to discuss the president’s budget, according to Washington Post reporter Megan Wilson.
The hearings could be lively. Republicans rejected proposed cuts to NIH funding last year, and Senate Committee on Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said again last week that she opposes cuts to biomedical research.
Kennedy also hasn’t been making the quarterly visits to the Senate health committee that Chair Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) demanded in return for his vote to confirm the health secretary. It’s not clear whether Cassidy, who faces a difficult primary in a state where Trump is popular, will challenge the health secretary on vaccine policies.
The budget steers clear of vaccine policy, which is in line with the administration’s goal of downplaying policies unpopular with voters. However, Democrats could use the hearings as an opportunity to attack Kennedy on topics such as the measles outbreak.
research funding
He reinvented genetics education. Then he lost his job
Megan Molteni wrote an excellent story about Brian Donovan, a recipient of the Genetics Society of America’s prestigious Elizabeth W. Jones Award for Excellence in Education.
Donovan was described by one of his peers as a “generational talent.” After years of interdisciplinary research, he developed a new way to teach genetics in high school that reduces racism.
But when the Trump administration terminated Donovan’s National Science Foundation grants, he found himself unemployed. He’s now preparing to apply to nursing school. Some of the work he started will continue, but more slowly and at a much smaller scale.
There’s a lot to this sad tale. You should read all of it.
medicare advantage
Insurers score a win
Under pressure from industry, the Trump administration scrapped a new risk-adjustment model, Bob Herman writes. The final rule for 2027 Medicare Advantage payment rates will hike base pay 2.5% on average, which is significantly more than what was proposed.
All told, the finalized rule is estimated to add $13 billion in revenue next year for insurers.
Read more.
