FDA Still Erasing Diversity Action Plans Despite RFK Jr.’s Promise To Finalize Guidance

FDA is continuing to erase draft guidance on diversity action plans it published last year before the Trump administration took office, despite a statement by HHS secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that he would finalize the guidance if confirmed and previous drug industry support for the program. FDA’s webpage for the draft guidance is now inaccessible, after a PDF of the guidance itself was previously removed . Federal agencies have pulled down many documents in response to President Donald...
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Cassidy Got Trump Admin Commitments Before Backing RFK Jr., Trump Says Autism Hike Is Reason To Confirm HHS Nominee

Sen. Bill Cassidy (LA) said on X that he decided to vote "yes" on advancing RFK Jr.’s HHS secretary nomination to the Senate floor after securing commitments from the Trump administration aimed at safeguarding public health and maintaining current vaccine approval and safety protocols. Cassidy had signaled Monday he was still struggling with how to vote -- following his inability last week to get Kennedy to back off claims vaccines are linked to autism -- and just hours before the...
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RFK Jr. Confirmation Sent To Floor With Cassidy Onboard; Budget Resolution Stalled

The Senate Finance Committee voted to advance controversial HHS secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Republicans are still struggling to find a path forward on reconciliation, and Democrats are vowing to fight GOP efforts to end Medicaid or defund programs per the White House budget office memo out last week that ensnarled community health center funding and Medicaid portals, and created general chaos. RFK Jr. vote Prior to the vote all eyes were on Sen. Bill Cassidy, who concluded...
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Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Funding Freeze A Second Time

A second federal judge has issued an order blocking President Donald Trump’s federal funding freeze a second time, following a Department of Justice (DOJ) statement that the department will continue to implement President Donald Trump’s executive orders freezing disbursement of federal funding. This is the second restraining order a judge has issued in this case, with the first one expiring Monday (Feb. 3). The government informed a Rhode Island court earlier Monday it intends to keep implementing Trump’s controversial executive...
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Dentists Stand Behind Water Fluoridation, Allege Kennedy Mispresented Meta-Analysis Results

After HHS secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made it clear he is still open to axing the long-time recommendations on community water fluoridization (CWF) in his written answers to the Senate Finance Committee released late last week, the American Dental Association (ADA) is telling senators dental professions stand firmly behind CWF. The group alleges Kennedy misrepresented the science on CWF in the committee’s Jan. 29 hearing when he suggested a metanalysis published in JAMA found a link between...
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Kennedy Responds Vaguely To PrEP Usage, Cost-Sharing Questions

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s HHS nominee, responded briefly and made no promises in response to questions on whether he will ensure insurers cover all forms of pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV (PrEP) without cost-sharing and whether he will promote and increase PrEP usage. Kennedy’s written responses to senators’ questions, published Friday (Jan. 31), came after a hectic week for government HIV programs. Trump’s 2019 initiative Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) was on a list of federal aid programs...
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RFK Jr. Written Responses Thin On Vaccine, Other FDA Details

Despite providing over 150 pages of written responses to senators’ additional questions Friday (Jan. 31) following two lengthy confirmation hearings, HHS secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. offered little additional detail for stakeholders looking to dig into how he would regulate vaccines, or his stances on any of FDA’s myriad other regulated product categories. On several questions, including on regulation of e-cigarettes, cannabis and hemp products, Kennedy said he would need to learn more information as HHS secretary before taking...
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EHR Stakeholder Outlines Health AI Policy Principles In Letter To Cassidy, Sanders

The Electronic Health Record Association (EHRA) is advocating for risk-based and health care-specific artificial intelligence regulations that include post-deployment surveillance, the trade group wrote in a Thursday (Jan. 30) letter to Senate health committee leadership. The group also said it believes clinicians and other AI users should bear responsibility for AI tools when developers provide “necessary transparency,” weighing into the emerging AI liability debate. “It is our strong preference that regulation take place at the federal level to ease the...
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RFK Jr. Skirts Around Senate Dems’ Questions On Drug Pricing Reform

HHS secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. answered nearly all of the Senate Finance Committee Democrats’ detailed drug pricing questions with a simple response that he will “follow the law,” declining to show his hand on whether he might seek changes to the Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare drug price negotiation language or to CMS’ implementation policies, modify ongoing CMS Innovation Center demonstrations or revamp FDA’s treatment of the Orange book, according to his written responses posted Friday (Jan. 31) following...
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NCPA: 30% Of Community Pharmacies Will Not Carry IRA-Selected Drugs

The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) says about 30% of its members have decided not to stock drugs selected for Medicare drug price negotiation. NCPA is demanding CMS scrap the requirement that pharmacies participate in the drug price negotiation program, and incorporate a series of Part D reimbursement and contracting reforms for pharmacies. Otherwise, the agency will fail to meet its goal of lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, NCPA says. In comments sent Jan. 27 on CMS’ proposed Medicare...
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