Electronic cigarettes

• Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced that the Trump administration is banning almost all flavored electronic cigarette products.

• The director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco products said the agency is open to enacting harsher regulations for menthol-flavored electronic cigarette products if the newly announced ban on most other flavors pushes young people toward menthol.

Drug pricing 

• Several drugmakers — including Novartis AG, Merck & Co. Inc. and Allergan PLC — announced they are raising drug prices in 2020, bringing the total number of prescription medications that will become more expensive this year to 445 so far, according to data analysis from 3 Axis Advisors.

• Novo Nordisk A/S plans to offer patients with a prescription and acute need for insulin a one-time supply of up to three vials of the drug, free of charge, and introduced more affordable versions of Novolog.

• An analysis found drugmakers raised prices by an average of 5.8 percent for 2020, slightly lower than the year prior, with Pfizer Inc. increasing the cost of more than 40 medications by more than 9 percent. 

Reproductive health

• A group of 207 lawmakers — all Republicans except Democratic Reps. Collin C. Peterson (Minn.) and Daniel Lipinski (Ill.) — sent an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to reconsider and potentially overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that established the right to abortion.

Health technology

• A study by Google Health found its artificial intelligence technology for reading mammograms can diagnose breast cancer more accurately than doctors, reducing both false positives and false negatives in the study of more than 28,000 mammograms from the United States and United Kingdom.

• The House and Senate are in session this week.

• The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s health subcommittee hosts a hearing entitled “Legislation to Improve Americans’ Health Care Coverage and Outcomes” on Wednesday, and will consider seven bills.

• The JPMorgan Chase & Co. 38th Annual Healthcare Conference begins Jan. 13.

• The Council for Affordable Health Coverage’s Price of Good Health Summit takes place on Jan. 16th.

1) Exclusive: Drugmakers from Pfizer to GSK to hike U.S. prices on over 200 drugs
Michael Erman and Carl O’Donnell, Reuters

2) More than 200 Republican members of Congress urge Supreme Court to reconsider Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision
Felicia Sonmez, The Washington Post

3) Google Shows AI Can Spot Breast Cancer Better Than Doctors
Amy Thomson, Bloomberg

4) One-On-One With Trump’s Medicare And Medicaid Chief: Seema Verma
Sarah Varney, Kaiser Health News

5) In the U.S., an Angioplasty Costs $32,000. Elsewhere? Maybe $6,400.
Margot Sanger-Katz, The New York Times

6) Texas Judge Rules That Hospital Can Take Baby Off Life Support
Karen Zraick, The New York Times

7) FDA to Ban All E-Cigarette Pod Flavors Except Tobacco and Menthol
Jennifer Maloney and Thomas M. Burton, The Wall Street Journal

8) The Slowdown in Medicare Spending Growth for Baby Boomers and Older Beneficiaries
Laura M. Keohane et al., The Commonwealth Fund

9) Century-old TB vaccine may work better if given in a new way
Lauran Neergaard, The Associated Press

10) Smokers, do not apply: U-Haul won’t hire some nicotine users
The Associated Press