Friday Report

From Washington, DC,
- The Wall Street Journal reports,
- “House Republican spending hawks blocked the party’s giant tax-and-spending bill on Friday, delivering President Trump a setback over disagreements on Medicaid, clean-energy tax breaks and budget deficits.
- “The holdouts—Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma and Andrew Clyde of Georgia—stopped the Budget Committee from advancing the legislation, which leaders hope to pass by the full House next week. The panel failed to move the bill on a 16-21 vote, with those four Republicans and Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R., Pa.) joining all Democrats in opposition. Smucker, who backs the measure, said he voted no for procedural reasons, so he can call for a revote later.
- “Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R., Texas) said lawmakers were close to agreements on making changes to win the necessary votes. The committee scheduled its session to resume at 10 p.m. Sunday.”
- and
- “The U.S. lost its last triple-A credit rating.
- “Moody’s Ratings downgraded the U.S. government on Friday, citing large fiscal deficits and rising interest costs.
- “Runaway budget deficits mean U.S. government borrowing will balloon at an accelerating rate, pushing interest rates up over the long term, Moody’s said. The firm said in a March report that fiscal weakness looked set to continue even under analysts’ best-case scenarios.”
- Modern Healthcare adds,
- “Long-sought legislation to monitor and restrict how pharmacy benefit mangers operate could finally pass — if Republicans can move their sweeping budget bill that includes a string of those provisions.
- ‘New PBM measures are tucked into the bill advanced Wednesday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which aims to cut more than $880 billion in spending, including $625 billion from Medicaid. The restrictions have long been championed by Health Subcommittee Chair Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), who was a pharmacist before becoming a congressman.”
- Per Govexec
- “The Trump administration is abiding by a court order to pause layoffs across most federal agencies, but it is still finding ways to shrink the federal workforce through involuntary means.
- “The Housing and Urban Development Department has begun once again firing its probationary employees—those recently hired or promoted—through a process distinct and separate from a reduction in force. Other agencies, including the Labor Department and National Science Foundation, meanwhile, are walking back recent RIFs due to a court-issued temporary restraining order.
- “That order specifically prevented agencies from issuing layoffs or taking any action to implement their Agency RIF and Reorganization Plans, which were mandated by the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management earlier this year. Agencies that were on the cusp of implementing RIFs, such as the Interior Department, have put those plans on ice at least until the restraining order is set to expire after May 23.”
- FedWeek called our attention to this OPM benefits administration letter about “Family Member Eligibility Verification Updates and Enrollment Processing.”
- Fierce Pharma informs us,
- “On the heels of a production-tinged executive order earlier this month, the Trump administration is doubling down on efforts to boost medicine manufacturing in the U.S.
- “In a new public-private partnership spearheaded by the administration, the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS’) Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are linking up with several universities and companies in a bid to improve manufacturing for essential medicines using technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and informatics.
- “The project, dubbed Equip-A-Pharma, will allow the federal agencies to work directly with Battelle Memorial Institute and Aprecia, Bright Path Laboratories, Rutgers University and Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs as the partners strive to boost domestic manufacturing of eight drugs and their active pharmaceutical ingredients, the ASPR said in a Thursday press release.”
- STAT News reports,
- “Optum, the health data and care provider division of UnitedHealth Group, is developing a way to calculate how sick Medicare patients are through artificial intelligence, instead of relying solely on diagnosis codes submitted by physicians.
- “Ken Cohen, a physician and Optum’s executive director of translational research, said Thursday at a conference organized by America’s Physician Groups that he was working with the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy on this “next generation” of Medicare risk coding using AI.”
From the FDA front,
- Per an FDA news release,
- “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today cleared for marketing the first in vitro diagnostic device that tests blood to aid in diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease. The Lumipulse G pTau217/ß-Amyloid 1-42 Plasma Ratio is for the early detection of amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease in adult patients, aged 55 years and older, exhibiting signs and symptoms of the disease.
- “Alzheimer’s disease impacts too many people, more than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined,” said FDA Commissioner Martin A. Makary, M.D., M.P.H. “Knowing that 10% of people aged 65 and older have Alzheimer’s, and that by 2050 that number is expected to double, I am hopeful that new medical products such as this one will help patients.”
- STAT News adds,
- “Jason Karlawish, a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in Alzheimer’s research, said that “used right, this is a test that could really help to improve the diagnostic experience.”
- “But with the availability of easier-to-use tests, there’s always the risk of “some frisky prescribing habits,” Karlawish said. Particularly in the field of Alzheimer’s, where just a small number of doctors are trained to treat the increasingly common condition, “the outcome can be inappropriate prescribing of the tests because a lot of people have a desire to get it, but not a lot of clinicians know how to properly use it.”
- “The test should only be used to help diagnose people who have confirmed cognitive impairment, and there’s a risk some doctors may skip the step of confirming, as it’s “much easier to order a test than it is to talk to a patient,” Karlawish said.
- “Still, “in the history of Alzheimer’s disease, this is a big day,” he said. “The notion 10 years ago that there’d be a blood test that detects the pathologies of Alzheimer’s was a bit of a science fiction fantasy kind of story, and now here it is FDA-approved and ready for clinical practice.”
- Reuters points out,
- “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Amneal Pharmaceuticals’ (AMRX.O), opens new tab self-administered migraine drug, giving way to a quick and more convenient treatment option for patients.
- “The treatment, branded as Brekiya, delivers a single dose of the drug called dihydroergotamine mesylate via an autoinjector. It is approved for the treatment of acute cases of migraine and severe, one-sided pain in the head called cluster headaches in adults, the drugmaker said on Thursday.”
From the judicial front,
- The American Hospital Association News informs us,
- “A U.S. district court judge for the District of Columbia May 15 ruled the Department of Health and Human Services must preapprove the use of 340B “rebate models” before they can be implemented, which the department has not yet done for any of the models pursued by the plaintiff drug companies.
- “Judge Dabney Friedrich issued the ruling in a case brought by a number of drug companies, finding that when the statute says that in implementing price reductions, “any rebate or discount” taken into account shall be “as provided by the Secretary,” it means that HHS has the authority to approve or reject the proposed rebate models. “Put another way, the statute contemplates that the Secretary may ‘have as a condition’ or ‘stipulate’ how any rebate or discount is accounted for in the price ultimately paid by covered entities.” * * *
- “HHS recently announced that it will be “in a position to provide guidance” about the drug industry’s proposed use of “rebate models” by the end of May.”
From the public health and medical research front.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today,
- “Seasonal influenza, COVID-19, and RSV activity is low and declining.
- “COVID-19
- “COVID-19 activity has declined to low levels nationally. Wastewater levels are at low levels, emergency department visits are at very low levels, and laboratory percent positivity is stable.
- “Additional information about current COVID-19 activity can be found at: CDC COVID Data Tracker: Home.
- “Influenza
- “Seasonal influenza activity is low and declining.
- “Additional information about current influenza activity can be found at: Weekly U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report | CDC
- “RSV
- “RSV activity has declined to low levels in most areas of the country.”
- The University of Minnesota CIDRAP notes,
- “The US measles picture grew by 23 cases this week, according to today’s update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
- “A total of 1,024 confirmed measle cases have been reported from 31 jurisdictions, with 14 outbreaks (defined as 3 or more related cases). Ninety-two percent of confirmed cases are outbreak-associated.
- “Of the cases, 96% have occurred in people who are either unvaccinated or have unknown vaccination status, and 128 (13%) of case-patients have been hospitalized, including 69 children under the age of 5. Three deaths have been confirmed to date, including two in unvaccinated school-aged children.” * * *
- “The CDC notes on its measles outbreak page that one the reasons for more measles activity is because MMR coverage among kindergartners is now below 95%—the level needed to maintain elimination status. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are 97% effective at preventing measles, and one dose is about 93% effective.”
- The American Journal of Managed Care lets us know,
- “Higher dietary inflammatory index (DII) scores are significantly associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer disease–related death among American adults, according to a study published in Experimental Gerontology.
- “Although the exact mechanisms of Alzheimer disease remain unknown, accumulating evidence suggests that chronic inflammation plays a key role in its pathogenesis and progression. In particular, past research shows that neuroinflammation accelerates neuronal damage, synaptic loss, and cognitive decline observed in patients with Alzheimer disease.
- “Anti-inflammatory diets can alleviate neuroinflammation in patients with Alzheimer disease by reducing systemic inflammation through several immune pathways in the brain and indirectly through the gut microbiome and body circulation pathways. Therefore, the researchers emphasized that an anti-inflammatory diet may constitute a beneficial nutritional approach in Alzheimer disease management.”
- The Wall Street Journal reports
- “Electricity is gaining traction as a potential treatment for diseases like cancer and rheumatoid arthritis.
- “Companies like Novocure and SetPoint Medical are developing devices that use electricity to treat diseases.
- “Clinical trials show promise, with devices extending survival for some cancer patients and improving arthritis symptoms.”
- STAT News adds,
- “Leading oncologists said this week that artificial intelligence will one day be as integrated into cancer care as it is in smartphones and self-driving cars — and that this is a change we should welcome.
- “Their comments, made at STAT’s Breakthrough Summit West on Wednesday, reflected an optimistic view for how the health care system can use AI across nearly all aspects of cancer care, from matching patients with clinical trials to predicting how they might fare on a given treatment. Some of this work is already happening. The panelists noted that AI has the potential to offer deep expertise across a growing number of precisely defined cancer indications, and that the technology can generate insights research focused on individual hypotheses might miss.”
From the U.S. healthcare business front,
- Beckers Hospital Review relates,
- “Cleveland Clinic reported an operating income of $52.8 million (1.3% margin) in the first quarter, up slightly from $50.2 million (1.3% margin) in the same period last year, according to financial documents published May 16.”
- and
- “Phoenix-based Banner Health reported an operating income of $142.4 million (3.6% margin) in the first quarter, up from an $89.3 million operating gain (2.4% margin) in the first quarter of 2024, according to financial documents published May 15.”
- Healthcare Dive reports,
- “Rite Aid is selling more than 1,000 pharmacies to rival drugstore operators as the beleaguered “pharmacy chain limps through bankruptcy processes for a second time.
- Rite Aid said it was formally pursuing sales of “substantially all of its assets” earlier this month. Now, healthcare companies CVS Health and Walgreens, along with grocery stores Albertsons, Kroger and Giant Eagle, are among the buyers snapping up Rite Aid stores, the company said on Thursday.
- “CVS is one of the biggest buyers, agreeing to acquire prescription files from 625 Rite Aid locations in 15 states in areas where it already has a presence, along with fully buying and operating 64 stores in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. The sales are subject to approval by a New Jersey bankruptcy court, which is scheduled to hold a hearing on May 21 regarding the transactions.”
- Fierce Healthcare tells us,
- “More than 6 in 10 survey respondents say they expect their healthcare organizations to see higher revenue from value-based care arrangements this year than in 2024, according to a joint report from the National Association of Accountable ACOs and health tech company Innovaccer.
- “The report surveyed 168 executive and clinical leaders at health systems, accountable care organizations, specialty providers, federally qualified health centers and other delivery organizations.
- “The findings indicate a growing reliance on VBC programs for some organizations. A significant segment, 30%, of organizations said a quarter of their revenue is tied to VBC contracts. More than 20% indicated at least half of their revenue is derived from fully capitated or downside risk contracts.
- “Three-fourths of respondents believe further financial support would propel VBC adoption more.”
- The Wall Street Journal reports,
- “Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen is stepping down after eight years in the role.
- “The move follows market challenges, a share-price decline, and pressure from its controlling foundation.
- “Former CEO Lars Rebien Sorensen will join the board amid concerns about losing ground to Eli Lilly.”