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Businesses with 100 or more employees will be required to mandate vaccination or weekly testing for their workers under a new rule announced by President Joe Biden...But many Nevada businesses and public institutions have already put their own employee vaccine mandates in place, with more in the works as the federal government finalizes the new rule and fleshes out its finer points. Some have gone further by requiring vaccinations not just for employees but as a condition of entry for members of the public, including at conventions, athletic events and concerts...At the same time, some rural governments have passed resolutions banning vaccine mandates to varying degrees...READ MORE

Unlike his predecessor, President Biden is embracing a more centralized strategy for managing the COVID-19 pandemic. He signed a flurry of executive orders and presidential directives on January 21, including one that institutes new mask mandates for interstate travel, one that creates a national board to expand access to testing, and another that requires international visitors to quarantine upon arrival in the United States. Biden pitched his National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness as a "wartime effort" and did not soft-pedal the grim details...READ MORE

Several years after saying the pharmaceutical industry was “getting away with murder,” President Donald Trump appears poised to unveil new drug pricing rules that could shake up U.S. pricing dynamics in a big way. But it remains to be seen exactly how the implementation will play out...Trump plans to unveil two major measures—an international pricing index and a rule to crack down on drug rebates...The international pricing index—also called the “most-favored-nations" clause—would tie U.S. prices in Medicare to lower prices abroad. The pharmaceutical industry has intensely resisted the proposal. Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks, for one, characterized it as “horrible” policy, and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Ph.D., said the president’s summer executive orders on drug pricing were “an enormous distraction” amid the COVID-19 fight and threatened American jobs...READ MORE

After touting a series of executive orders on drug pricing in late July, President Donald Trump has now unveiled the most significant among them—an order tying Medicare's drug prices to much lower costs in other developed countries. The biopharma industry pushed back hard, and it’s unclear exactly when or how the changes would be implemented...The executive order...says Medicare should not buy certain Part B or Part D drugs unless at prices paid by “at a minimum, the lowest price at which the manufacturer sells that drug to any other developed nation.” In Part D, the plan would apply “where insufficient competition exists” and where “seniors are faced with prices" higher than those in other developed nations...READ MORE

President Joe Biden‘s executive order on competition resurrects Trump administration policy plays geared toward cutting down drug prices, calling for efforts that policy analysts say may face challenges getting off the ground...The executive order signed Friday includes measures to bolster health-care industry competition in the interest of lowering drug prices. Among its proposals are a push for the Food and Drug Administration to work with states to import prescription drugs from Canada and a call for the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on brand drugmakers paying generic manufacturers to delay putting their cheaper products on the market...READ MORE

On the drug pricing front, a major effort by the Trump administration to cut Medicare prices has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge...The president's "most favored nation" clause, which aims to tie drug prices in Medicare to lower prices abroad, has hit an early setback as a federal judge in Maryland ruled the administration didn't give the public a chance to weigh in...Judge Catherine Blake ruled the executive order was rushed unlawfully...After Trump moved to implement the measure in November, industry trade groups PhRMA and BIO sued to stop it. Blake's ruling is temporary and the Trump administration could still win the lawsuit...READ MORE

...Presidential Proclamation 10051 suspended immigration into the United States for anyone holding H-1B, J-1, and L visas, and suspended granting new ones. Most worrisome for the pharmaceutical industry is the ban on H-1B visas, because it will limit, and in some instances entirely prevent, biopharma companies from recruiting the specialized talent they need...the suspension and limitation are aimed at ensuring “that the presence in the United States of H-1B nonimmigrants does not disadvantage United States workers.” The proclamation ends on Dec. 31, at which point the limitations will cease or the administration may extend them as it sees fit...READ MORE

Other recommendations include boosting local production, promoting research and development, and creating robust quality management maturity...The White House and several federal agencies...released a series of policy recommendations for addressing the vulnerabilities in U.S. pharmaceutical supply chains...The review came in response to an executive order signed by President Joe Biden...that directed the government to identify risks, address vulnerabilities and develop a strategy to promote supply chain resilience throughout sectors...READ MORE

After President Donald Trump issued a range of executive orders targeting high U.S. drug prices in recent months, America's neighbors to the north are responding...Following warnings that mass exports could cause domestic drug shortages, Canadian officials blocked the shipment of meds to the U.S. if the exports would “cause or worsen” a shortage...The Canadian restriction went into effect on Friday, before the United States’ own rule to allow cheaper imports from its neighbor country as a way to lower prices...Moving forward, companies in Canada will be “required to provide information to assess existing or potential shortages, when requested, and within 24 hours if there is a serious or imminent health risk,” Health Minister Patty Hajdu said...READ MORE

When President Trump unveiled Operation Warp Speed in May, he declared that it was “unlike anything our country has seen since the Manhattan Project.”...Operation Warp Speed is largely an abstraction in Washington, with little known about who works there other than its top leaders, or how it operates. Even pharmaceutical companies hoping to offer help or partnerships have labored to figure out who to contact...Now, an organizational chart of the $10 billion initiative...reveals the fullest picture yet of Operation Warp Speed: a highly structured organization in which military personnel vastly outnumber civilian scientists...that many of the Warp Speed discussions take place in protected rooms used to discuss classified information...“This is a massive scientific and logistical undertaking,”...“We are weeks away, at most, a month or two away from having at least one safe and effective vaccine.”...READ MORE