Morning Consult Health: What's Ahead & Week in Review

Morning Consult Health: What’s Ahead & Week in Review

Health

Essential health care industry news & intel to start your day.

April 23, 2023

By Ricky Zipp

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Good morning, health readers. Late Friday, the Supreme Court decided to allow the abortion pill mifepristone to remain on the market with no limitations on access, for now. The decision blocks a ruling from an appeals court that overturned a full suspension of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval by a federal judge in Texas, but upheld certain restrictions, such as how the medication can be distributed and how late into pregnancy someone can use it.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito were the only named judges to dissent, with Alito writing that the public would not have been harmed if the appeals court’s order had taken effect. The majority did not provide reasoning for its decision.

The ruling will be temporary as the Biden administration continues to fight to maintain the FDA’s approval of the medication and permanently keep full access to the most common form of abortion in the United States.

The Supreme Court’s second major abortion ruling in less than a year comes at a time when people are questioning if the court should even be making these decisions. More than half of Americans (57%) said they trust the FDA to make decisions on abortion access in the United States, much more than the Supreme Court (43%) and federal judges (40%), according to a Morning Consult survey.

As states across the country restrict abortion access after the fall of Roe v. Wade, more than 7 in 10 U.S. adults said they are concerned that people will turn to unsafe abortion methods and that there will be an increase in maternal health complications and deaths.

What’s Ahead

The Washington Post is hosting an event tomorrow on “Vaccines for Children,” featuring Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF. The event will discuss new UNICEF data that shows a decline of immunization rates and public trust for children’s vaccinations across a list of countries.

The House Appropriations Committee’s Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee will hold a hearing Wednesday on “Provider Relief Fund and Healthcare Workforce Shortages.” Carole Johnson, administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, is scheduled to testify on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on “The Assault on Reproductive Rights in a Post-Dobbs America.”

There are two FDA committee meetings worth watching this week:

The Blood Products Advisory Committee will meet Wednesday to review research programs in the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, among others.
The Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee will meet Friday to review AstraZeneca PLC’s new drug application to use Lynparza in combination with abiraterone and prednisone or prednisolone to treat a form of prostate cancer.

The Medical Device Manufacturers Association’s annual meeting will run from Wednesday through Friday. Speakers include FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, Jeff Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, and Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and Annie Kuster (D-N.H.).

The Washington Post is holding an event Friday on bridging the digital divide in education, finance and health care, featuring Leana Wen, Washington Post columnist, emergency physician and professor of health policy and management at George Washington University.

Earnings continue: Biogen Inc., Tenet Healthcare Corp., Novartis AG and Centene Corp. on Tuesday; Humana Inc., Roche Holding AG, Universal Health Services Inc. and GSK PLC on Wednesday; and Gilead Sciences Inc., AstraZeneca, Sanofi SA, AbbVie Inc., Eli Lilly & Co. and Merck & Co. Inc. on Thursday.

Week in Review

PhRMA attacks drug price negotiations: Executives for PhRMA, a powerful drug industry lobbying group, slammed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Medicare drug negotiation program, with Lauren Neves, deputy vice president for policy and research, saying that the program is an “exercise in punishing drug manufacturers.”

PhRMA also made a list of complaints to CMS about the price negotiation program, including complaints of only allowing for a 30-day comment period on guidance, limited meetings between the agency and manufacturers during the price-setting process and gag clauses on manufacturers during negotiations, among other criticisms. The group said that the program is in “no way a ‘negotiation,’” adding that CMS “chose to go beyond what was outlined in the statute, taking the most extreme stance to sweep in as many medicines as possible and be as punitive as possible.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wants to increase the government’s role in drug price setting with new legislation that would penalize companies for selling drugs in the United States at higher prices than average costs in U.S. peer nations in the Group of Seven major industrial countries, in addition to banning drug rebates in federal and private health plans.

Updated COVID-19 vaccine strategy: The FDA said it would offer only one omicron-tailored mRNA COVID-19 vaccine for people, simplifying the U.S vaccination strategy from a two-dose primary series followed by boosters, and the agency authorized a second updated booster shot for people 65 years or older and who are immunocompromised. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky approved the changes after an expert immunization panel that advises the agency informally endorsed the plan, though the panel was not asked to take a vote.

The Biden administration said it would launch a more than $1 billion new program to maintain free access to COVID-19 vaccines for people who are uninsured once the vaccines hit the commercial market later this year.

Congress watch: Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the chair and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, released a list of reforms on pharmacy benefit managers in what appears to be an attempt to get the measures included in a legislative package of drug pricing policies coming together in the chamber.

Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) introduced legislation that would extend a provision of the Inflation Reduction Act that caps insulin costs for Medicare beneficiaries at $35 per month to people with private insurance, a policy that the Biden administration has been prioritizing over the past several months.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s newly released plan to raise the debt ceiling includes a provision that would require Medicaid recipients to work 80 hours per month to remain eligible for benefits, though the Democrat-controlled Senate is not likely to pass the legislation. A study published in Health Affairs on Medicaid work requirements, which the GOP sells as a way to encourage people to get jobs and pull themselves out of poverty, showed that a program in Arkansas led to 18,000 people losing their health coverage with no increase in employment before a judge stopped the program.

Stat of the Week

$10.8 billion

The approximate amount Merck will pay to acquire Prometheus Biosciences Inc., as the pharmaceutical giant continues to look for additional revenue streams to offset losses expected when its blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda loses patent protection this decade. Merck’s deal for Prometheus, one of the biggest in recent pharma history, will strengthen its research pipeline and boost its portfolio of autoimmune drugs.