Abortion pill access threatened: More than 400 executives from pharmaceutical and biotech companies and investment firms signed a statement that criticized Kacsmaryk’s decision to overturn the FDA’s approval of the abortion drug, writing that if “courts can overturn drug approvals without regard for science or evidence, or for the complexity required to fully vet the safety and efficacy of new drugs, any medicine is at risk for the same outcome as mifepristone.”
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said the FDA should ignore the ruling and keep mifepristone on the market, joining calls from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). All 23 Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee demanded an immediate hearing on the mifepristone ban, writing in a letter to Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) that the committee and Americans “must understand the impact of this decision and what is at stake for not only abortion care, but also for access to critical safe and effective medications more broadly.”
The White House proposed a federal rule that would prohibit health care organizations from sharing personal medical care records with law enforcement and state officials for investigations on reproductive care in states where abortion is legal, a move to protect the identity of women who travel across state lines to get the procedure. Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law a near-total abortion ban after six weeks of pregnancy — despite polling from the University of North Florida that showed 75% of state residents opposed the ban — a move that drastically reduces abortion access for people in the Southeast.
White House health news: The Biden administration declared the rise of the synthetic opioid fentanyl combined with the animal tranquilizer xylazine an “emerging threat” to the country, the first time any administration has made the declaration for a substance, according to ONDCP’s Gupta. The administration will have a “nationwide plan, with real deliverable action, that will save lives and will be published within 90 days of this designation,” Gupta said.
President Joe Biden announced the administration is expanding eligibility for Medicaid and health insurance plans offered through the Affordable Care Act exchanges to hundreds of thousands of people who are part of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The Biden administration is launching a $5 billion program to speed up the development of new coronavirus vaccines and treatments as the virus continues to mutate and threats persist from other coronaviruses, with Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s COVID-19 coordinator, saying that the program is needed because it is ”very clear to us that the market on this is moving very slowly.”
Meanwhile, Biden signed bipartisan legislation to end the national emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic, roughly one month before the declaration was scheduled to expire along with the public health emergency.
Medicare drug costs: The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission unanimously approved three recommendations to help lower drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries, such as lowering prices for drugs that are part of the FDA’s accelerated approval program but do not have a confirmed clinical benefit, and allowing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to bundle similar drugs in a shared payment program.
Finally, CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said she is working with several unnamed pharmaceutical chief executives and other agencies about Medicare’s new drug price negotiation program, saying that the process has to be collaborative “because manufacturers absolutely have leverage and the ability to negotiate with us.”
