STAT+: ‘It’s like Groundhog Day’: The cancer drug shortage isn’t new — and neither are the solutions
A young girl, maybe 5 or 6 years old, had come into Yoram Unguru’s clinic…
Category: policy
STAT+: Protestors slam health insurance lobby for Medicare Advantage coverage restrictions
WASHINGTON — Hundreds of activists rallied today outside of the headquarters of the country’s largest…
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STAT+: Grail faces uphill battle to get Medicare to cover its cancer screening test
WASHINGTON — Grail is aggressively lobbying to get Medicare to pay for its cancer-screening test…
STAT+: UnitedHealth wins $3.3 billion takeover of home health giant Amedisys
Home health and hospice chain Amedisys has chosen a new corporate owner. Amedisys and UnitedHealth…
STAT+: Congress explores changes to the way Medicare pays doctors
Congress is taking early steps towards changing the way Medicare pays physicians. At a hearing…
STAT+: The strategy behind the pharmaceutical industry’s flurry of lawsuits challenging drug pricing reform
WASHINGTON — The pharmaceutical industry has been filing a lawsuit here, there, and pretty much everywhere….
Sen. Grassley calls on GOP leaders to rally support for PBM reforms
WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley wants to see his party’s leadership turn up the…
STAT+: Top federal lobbyist at PhRMA leaves
WASHINGTON — The top federal lobbyist for the brand drug lobby PhRMA is leaving, two…
STAT+: ‘It’s beyond unethical’: Opaque conflicts of interest permeate prescription drug benefits
Employers across the country — from big names like Boeing and UPS to local school…
STAT+: Health insurance stocks tumble after UnitedHealth says Medicare enrollees are getting more care
A top executive at UnitedHealth Group said Tuesday that the health insurance and services conglomerate…
STAT+: Key House Republican escalates rhetoric against PBMs
WASHINGTON — A key House Republican ramped up his criticism of pharmacy benefit managers Tuesday,…
STAT+: Top Senate Republican signals interest in site-neutral reform for hospitals
WASHINGTON — A top Senate Republican signaled his interest in pursuing hospital payment reform to…
STAT+: If AI invents a new medicine, who gets the patent?
Pharmaceutical and biotech companies are increasingly using artificial intelligence to discover and make drugs and…
BMI is starting to plateau in rich Western countries. That doesn’t mean obesity is solved
This is part of a series about new obesity drugs that are transforming patients’ lives,…
STAT+: Democrats blast Biden administration over Alzheimer’s drug plans
WASHINGTON — Ahead of a major Food and Drug Administration meeting on a new Alzheimer’s…
STAT+: ‘We don’t agree’ on drug pricing policy, FDA chief tells biotech leaders
BOSTON — The drug industry has spent the past year speaking against new mechanisms that…
‘Tantamount to extortion:’ Merck sues U.S. government over Medicare negotiation program
WASHINGTON — Merck on Tuesday sued to stop the federal government from implementing a new…
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STAT+: Medicare taps acting official to head up its new drug price negotiations
WASHINGTON — Medicare has chosen a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation official to temporarily…
STAT+: More than 200 FDA staffers have retired in less than a year
WASHINGTON — More than 230 people have retired from the Food and Drug Administration since…
STAT+: UnitedHealth starts bidding war with $3.3 billion offer for Amedisys
There’s now a two-party showdown for one of the largest home health companies in the…
STAT+: Ted Love, BIO’s first Black board chair, aims to rehab biotech’s image in Washington
WASHINGTON — Ted Love has pretty much done everything there is to do in biotech. He’s…
STAT+: Debt ceiling deal could mean cancer, disease research cuts, advocates warn
WASHINGTON — Researchers and health care advocates are warning that the debt ceiling deal would…
STAT+: Republicans want to crack down on pricey health regulations, but there are major loopholes
WASHINGTON — At first glance, the debt ceiling deal that Republicans struck with the White…
STAT+: CVS warns PBM reforms ‘could lead to higher costs’
As Congress considers wide-ranging reforms to pharmacy benefit managers, a top executive at CVS Health,…
House Republicans demand career scientist explain pathogen research
WASHINGTON — House Republicans are ratcheting up pressure on federal agencies’ pandemic response with an…
Sen. Elizabeth Warren probes abortion access amid states’ patchwork plans
WASHINGTON – Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is launching a fresh round of questioning on states’…
STAT+: Pharmalittle: Pfizer touts study data for hemophilia drug; former Novartis execs cleared of bribery in Greece
Good morning, everyone, and how are you today? We are doing find, thank you, especially…
STAT+: European regulatory panel weighing against approval of Amylyx’s ALS therapy, company says
LONDON — A European regulatory panel has taken a negative view of whether an ALS…
STAT+: U.K. unveils $800 million package to bolster life sciences amid concern over biopharma investments
LONDON — The U.K. government on Thursday unveiled an $800 million package to bolster the…
STAT+: With Fat Joe concerts and Super Bowl ads, a cadre of billionaires is mounting an unorthodox campaign against hospitals
WASHINGTON — At a waterfront concert in one of this city’s swankiest neighborhoods, rappers Busta…
STAT+: Matt Eyles, CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, to depart
Matt Eyles, CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, is leaving by this October, the lobbying…
STAT+: Congress took on high drug prices in Medicare. Now Biden wants to take it to Medicaid
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration wants to help states control Medicaid prescription drug costs by…
STAT+: Congress highlighted a chemo drug’s price to blast PBMs — but it’s not a PBM issue
WASHINGTON — Congress blasted drug middlemen at a hearing Tuesday, with multiple lawmakers pointing to…
FDA budget battles, prisons’ sobering Covid response & BIO’s CEO search is on
You’re reading the web edition of D.C. Diagnosis. Sign up here to receive this newsletter…
STAT+: FDA official offers insights into whether gene therapy makers could use common manufacturing process
WASHINGTON — A Food and Drug Administration official provided some insights this week into the…
STAT+: New Biden science agency ARPA-H launches first program, targeting bone regrowth
WASHINGTON — A multibillion-dollar science agency tasked with slashing through research bureaucracy will start its…
Biden drug czar: ‘All options are on the table’ for expanding methadone access
WASHINGTON — The federal government is aggressively exploring ways to increase access to methadone, a…
Senators probing largest Medicare Advantage plans over how algorithms factor in care denials
Senators warned the country’s largest Medicare Advantage insurers at a hearing on Wednesday that they…
STAT+: House panel takes first steps toward reining in hospitals with ‘site-neutral’ changes
WASHINGTON — A key House panel on Wednesday advanced several health care bills on Wednesday,…
STAT+: Could an upcoming Supreme Court case make the FDA slower?
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration could take longer to write regulations and make…
Depression hits new high among Americans, per survey
WASHINGTON — More than a quarter of American adults are depressed, a 10% surge from…
AstraZeneca is third member to leave PhRMA in five months
WASHINGTON — AstraZeneca has decided to leave the brand drug lobbying powerhouse PhRMA halfway through…
Biden nominates Monica Bertagnolli to head NIH
WASHINGTON — President Biden on Monday officially announced that he would nominate National Cancer Institute…
STAT+: Hospital-insurer tussle in Arizona puts care denials front and center
UnitedHealthcare and Phoenix Children’s Hospital are embroiled in a bitter contract dispute that would lock…
STAT+: Senate panel passes a suite of drug pricing bills — but fails to advance one major PBM reform
WASHINGTON – The Senate health committee on Thursday passed a package of bills aimed at…
Key House Democrat demands NIH answer for pace of long Covid research
WASHINGTON — A powerful Democratic lawmaker is interrogating the National Institutes of Health over its…
STAT+: Telework helps FDA compete for scientists. What if it’s no longer an option?
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration needs to hire scores of in-demand scientists, and…
STAT+: Geisinger board member: Local consolidation influenced Kaiser-Geisinger deal
A long-running flurry of hospital and medical group acquisitions in Pennsylvania — especially among the…
STAT+: Senator pushes NIH for ‘formal’ review of Covid response
WASHINGTON — Republicans continued to press top health officials on the coronavirus response during a…
STAT+: Option Care takes over Amedisys in ‘perplexing’ $3.6 billion home care deal
Option Care Health is buying Amedisys in an all-stock merger valued at $3.6 billion, creating…