Simplicity is a virtue.

From Washington, DC,

• STAT News reports,
  • “Clinical trial policy got caught up in the Trump administration’s attack on policies related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Republicans in Congress would like to change that. 
  • “Days after Trump took office, the Health and Human Services Department began purging all references to DEI from the websites of its agencies. Those efforts were supposed to target DEI initiatives focused on hiring practices, communications, and social issues.
  • “But supporters of clinical trial diversity say the policy has nothing to do with DEI in that sense. Instead, it aims to ensure that clinical trials enroll people who are similar to the patients who would use the drugs and medical devices being tested. 
  • “Congressional Republicans seem to agree. Last month, the Republican-controlled House passed a bill, mostly along party lines, to fund the Food and Drug Administration. It was accompanied by a report that, while not legally binding, tells agency officials what congressional appropriators expected of them. 
  • “A section of that bill deals with trial diversity.
  • “The Committee encourages FDA to continue to implement legislation and policies requiring study sponsors to submit a diversity action plan for phase 3 studies of new drugs,” the report states.”
    
• MedPage Today relates,
  • “I still have hope,” said Peggy Tighe, legislative counsel for the Regulatory Relief Coalition, a group of physician specialty organizations advocating for regulatory burden reduction in Medicare, when she was asked about the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Actopens in a new tab or window, which was approved last weekopens in a new tab or window by the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee.
  • “The measure, which seeks more transparency and accountability from Medicare Advantage plans on their prior authorization decisions, must still be approved by the full Ways & Means and House Energy & Commerce committees before it hits the House floor for a vote.
  • “What’s different this year is that there is much more limited committee time and House floor time because of the … drama on the House floor and the paucity of votes,” Tighe said in a phone interview with MedPage Today. “So with everything else going on, I still have hope that we could pass this bill out of Energy & Commerce and Ways & Means before the August recess, but every day that Congress gets canceled, it makes it more difficult to find that time to accomplish what I think should be a very easy goal of passing legislation that is zero cost and widely supported.”
    
• Per a HHS news release,
  • “The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a division within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), today announced more than $281 million in funding opportunities for 15 grant programs.
  • “The investments will advance President Trump’s Great American Recovery Initiative by expanding access to a wide range of behavioral health services, including substance use disorder treatment, overdose prevention and response, mental health and suicide prevention, trauma-informed care, integrated care, recovery supports, first responder training, privacy education and workforce development.”

• The American Hospital Association tells us,
  • “The AHA today sent a letter to the Office of the United States Trade Representative to ask that medications, medical devices and other healthcare equipment and supplies be exempted from proposed duties on goods from other nations. While “America’s hospitals and health systems support the administration’s goal of strengthening domestic manufacturing for drugs, medical devices, PPE and other essential medical supplies,” the AHA noted, “the U.S. healthcare system relies significantly on international sources for many drugs, devices, supplies, equipment and other products needed to both care for patients and protect our healthcare workers.”

• Federal News Network informs us,
  • “An overhaul to the federal workforce’s performance management system is now set in stone, following a final rule the Office of Personnel Management released this week.
  • “Going forward, agencies will be limited in the share of employees they can rate highly in performance reviews. OPM’s final regulations, which are scheduled to publish Tuesday to the Federal Register, remove a previous ban on using forced distribution in the government’s performance management system.
  • “The final rule marks the largest overhaul of the government’s performance management system in decades. Agencies will have to be in compliance with OPM’s changes by Jan. 1, 2027. Once effective, the changes to performance management will apply across virtually the entire federal workforce.
  • “These changes are necessary to promote a culture of accountability and excellence across the federal workforce — one that reflects both the government’s evolving operational demands and its longstanding commitment to a merit-based civil service,” OPM said in the final rule.”

From the public health and medical / Rx research front

• The Washington Post explains “Why U.S. measles outbreaks have grown harder to extinguish.”
  • The nation is already nearing last year’s record case total, and experts say the virus is forcing doctors to relearn a disease many thought had been consigned to history.”

• Beckers Hospital Review tells us that “Clinical cases of the drug-resistant fungus Candida auris more than doubled in the U.S. from 2022 to 2024, highlighting ongoing transmission in healthcare settings, according to a CDC study published July 2.” 
  • “C. auris is frequently resistant to antifungal drugs, can persist on patients’ skin and surfaces, and spreads readily in healthcare settings. Bloodstream infections caused by the fungus are associated with high mortality.
  • “The CDC said sustained infection prevention and control measures, including transmission-based precautions, environmental disinfection and communication of patients’ Candida auris status during transfers, remain essential to limiting further spread.”

• The AP informs us,
  • “Doctors and others are sounding an alarm: More U.S. children have been drowning in recent years.
  • “When drowning occurs, seconds matter,” said Dr. Rohit Shenoi, the lead author of a recent American Academy of Pediatrics warning. “Quick rescue and resuscitation can mean the difference between life, death and lifelong disability.”
  • “About 4,000 to 5,000 Americans drown each year. Most are adults who die in natural bodies of water, such as lakes, ponds or oceans.
  • “But statistically speaking, drowning is a much larger danger to children. It’s the No. 1 cause of death for kids ages 1 to 4, and one of the top killers of children ages 5 to 14. The drowning rate is higher for white kids in the younger group, but much higher for Black, American Indian and Alaska Native children in the older group.
  • “Drownings of very young children sometimes occur in bathtubs. But most, like Stewie Leonard’s, occur in swimming pools.”

• The American Medical Association lets us know what doctors want their patients to know about sunburn.
  • “Sunburns cause lasting skin damage. Learn the difference from sun poisoning, how to prevent burns and treat symptoms safely, and when to seek medical care.”

• Health Day points out,
  • “Many people with long COVID suffer from “brain fog,” finding it difficult to remember things, think on their feet or pay attention.
  • “But this symptom can be addressed by rehab, according to a new study.
  • “Ten weeks of cognitive rehabilitation helped long COVID patients lift much of their brain fog, allowing them to achieve goals they’d set in their work and home lives, researchers reported July 1 in JAMA Network Open.”

• Beckers Hospital Review notes,
  • “Active drug shortages in the U.S. climbed to 223 in the first quarter of 2026, the second consecutive quarterly increase. Buried in that count are dozens of manufacturer-specific dates — extended-use deadlines, promised “next delivery” windows, backorder recovery targets — that pharmacy teams are tracking lot by lot. Several of those dates land this month.
  • “[The article identifies] six hospital-use drugs with a shortage-related deadline in July, according to the FDA’s drug shortage database and its list of extended use dates.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

• Beckers Payer Issues informs us about “5 Blue Cross Blue Shield updates” and “Payers ranked by Medicare Advantage bonus payments in 2026.”

• Beckers Hospital Review discusses “Kaiser Permanente’s partnership strategy and what comes next” and identifies “15 maternity service closures in 2026.”

• Fierce Healthcare reports,
  • “For a month now, weekly prescriptions for Eli Lilly’s Foundayo have been hovering at around 20,000. In other words, three months into its market debut, the non-peptide GLP-1 receptor agonist was still at the same script level that Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill had achieved in two to three weeks post-launch.
  • “For the week ended on June 26, Foundayo’s total scripts dipped about 4% sequentially to 19,830, according to IQVIA data cited by Jefferies. During the same period, scripts were also down about 2% for oral Wegovy, reaching about 149,000.
  • “In a July 4 report, Jefferies analysts modeled about $71 million in U.S. sales during Foundayo’s debut quarter from April to June, versus the team’s previous estimate of $85 million in a June 26 report. Wall Street’s consensus currently has the number at $130 million. To reach its estimate, Jefferies used an illustrative calculation based on the IQVIA data, with certain assumptions regarding pricing, dosing and stocking.
  • “While Lilly still lags Novo on the oral GLP-1 battlefield, the Indianapolis pharma has maintained a majority 59.5% share of the overall obesity market, according to IQVIA’s prescription data.” 

• The Wall Street Journal informs us,
  • Vertex Pharmaceuticals VRTX has agreed to purchase Crinetics Pharmaceuticals CRNX for $10 billion, adding a biopharmaceutical company that specializes in treatments for endocrine diseases to its portfolio that mainly includes cystic fibrosis therapies.
  • Vertex, a Boston-based biotechnology company, said it would acquire Crinetics for $85 a share in cash. The company pegged the value at $8.8 billion when accounting for net estimated cash acquired.
• and
  • Novartis NOVN said it agreed to pay up to $1.5 billion for Myricx Bio, in a bid to bolster its portfolio amid industry competition for oncology drugs.
  • “The Swiss pharmaceutical company said it would purchase the privately held U.K.-based biotechnology firm, which is developing a new class of antibody-drug conjugates. Myricx Bio’s approach delivers differentiated cancer-killing mechanisms directly to tumor cells, Novartis said.
  • “Novartis will pay $1.1 billion upfront, with up to $400 million in potential additional payments. The deal, expected to close in the second half of 2026, is subject to regulatory approvals. Myricx Bio has a pipeline of antibody-drug conjugates that show pre-clinical efficacy and tolerability across tumor-associated antigens and cancer cell types, it said.”

• BioPharma Dive adds,
  • “Drug developers making new medicines to treat autoimmune conditions and cancer made up more than 40% of the venture funding rounds in the first half of 2026, BioPharma Dive data show.
  • “Of the more than $9 billion that poured into venture-backed biotechnology companies from 26 highly active investors tracked by BioPharma Dive, a little more than $3.9 billion went toward immune and cancer drugmakers. About $2.1 billion of that figure alone was dedicated to that former bucket, in which many startups are working on experimental therapies for conditions such as lupus, atopic dermatitis and inflammatory bowel disease. A handful are developing drugs in these two fields simultaneously (and have been included in the funding totals for each).
  • “While exits might be concentrated in other research areas like obesity and cardiometabolic disorders, venture funding is likely to continue pouring into cancer and immunology because of a lack of “a time-sensitive element,” said Ben Zercher, a senior analyst at PitchBook.”