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Last year, President Donald Trump decided to halt United States funding to the World Health Organization and withdraw from the organization based on its inept response to COVID-19 and its obsequious failure to confront China over its lack of transparency and cooperation during the outbreak...President Joe Biden, in one of his first actions, reversed those decisions in a letter to the United Nations secretary-general...Trump was correct in his criticism of the WHO. Had China been more transparent and cooperative, many lives could have been saved and economic damage avoided in the U.S. and around the world...READ MORE

In a first in the nation, Oregon has rejected charging drug users with criminal offenses, with voters passing a ballot measure that decriminalizes possession of heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone and other hard drugs...“Today’s victory is a landmark declaration that the time has come to stop criminalizing people for drug use,” said Kassandra Frederique, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which was behind the measure. “Measure 110 is arguably the biggest blow to the war on drugs to date.”...The measure completely changes how Oregon’s justice system treats those who are found with personal-use amounts of the hard drugs...READ MORE

The Trump administration unveiled four executive orders on Friday aimed at bringing down pharmaceutical prices...1) he (Trump) announced a one-month ultimatum for drug manufacturers to propose alternative plans to reduce drug prices...“We’re going to hold that until August 24, hoping that the pharmaceutical companies will come up with something that will substantially reduce drug prices,” Trump said...2) A second order...revives a...plan that would eliminate the rebates drug makers pay to insurers...The executive order...includes a caveat that the plan cannot be implemented if it will raise premiums...3)...the Trump administration is expanding its efforts to allow Americans to import medicines...the administration was now allowing personal importation, a phrase used to describe when individual consumers buy drugs from other countries...The order says HHS will facilitate “grants to individuals of waivers of the prohibition of importation of prescription drugs.”...4) The fourth order would force certain health centers to pass negotiated discounts on insulin and EpiPens to patients...READ MORE

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored key weaknesses in the biopharma industry’s complex global supply chain, and now a top adviser for the Trump administration is calling on Congress to push for more manufacturing in Puerto Rico...White House trade adviser Peter Navarro faulted a “broken system” that pushes manufacturing offshore. He called on Congress to use the next round of COVID-19 relief to incentivize manufacturing on the island territory...Previously, a tax provision allowed U.S. companies to avoid paying federal taxes on profits from operations in Puerto Rico, but Congress phased that out over time...Plus, utility costs are significantly higher there than in the U.S., which has also led to a reduction in manufacturing. Pharma companies themselves have shuttered a number of drug plants in Puerto Rico in recent years...READ MORE

Pharma companies have inked a series of federal settlements over payments to charity organizations, which the federal government argues are a “conduit” to boosting drug sales. Now, after an opioid investigation, two Senators want all those charity payments disclosed publicly...And they have just the mechanism for it. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Wyden have called for an expansion of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Open Payments database. That database now includes payments from pharma companies to doctors and other medical providers, but the senators propose adding payments to tax-exempt groups, too...READ MORE

Hospital groups praised the Trump administration's decision Monday to pull a Medicaid rule aimed at fiscal accountability, which providers warned could lead to massive cuts in reimbursement..."up to $50 billion in annual funding for the Medicaid program was on the line" if the rule had been finalized..."We appreciate CMS for acknowledging the harmful consequences this rule would have for patients,"..."Hospitals and health systems will be greatly relieved when the proposed rule is formally withdrawn."...The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services first unveiled the Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Rule in November, with the goal of tamping down on schemes used by states to boost federal matching funds in the program...READ MORE

The Trump administration has formally notified the United Nations of its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, although the pullout won’t take effect until next year, meaning it could be rescinded under a new administration or if circumstances change...The withdrawal notification makes good on President Donald Trump’s vow in late May to terminate U.S. participation in the WHO, which he has harshly criticized for its response to the coronavirus pandemic and accused of bowing to Chinese influence...The move was immediately assailed by health officials and critics of the administration, including numerous Democrats who said it would cost the U.S. influence in the global arena...READ MORE

It's no secret that the drug industry isn't thrilled with the Trump administration's last-ditch push to bring down drug prices, including an order allowing drug imports from Canada. Now, PhRMA is taking its objections to court...After the administration unveiled its importation executive order in final form in September, PhRMA and other groups sued the Department of Health and Human Services last month arguing the measure violates the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act...The lawsuit claims HHS’ importation effort increases risks for the U.S. drug supply chain and forces companies to disclose trade secrets...READ MORE

Drug companies refused to attend a White House meeting on drug prices...President Donald Trump seems to have hit a nerve with his Friday executive orders on drug pricing. As drug companies work to battle the pandemic, executives declined to attend a White House meeting today on drug prices...When he touted the executive orders Friday, the president said Tuesday's meeting would facilitate talks with pharmaceutical executives on an issue important to many Americans. But the major industry trade groups declined to send representatives...Industry representatives weren't sure it would have been a "productive meeting,"...READ MORE

Unfortunately, there are a lot of assertions floating around that tell a misleading story about pharmaceutical manufacturing, diminishing America’s leadership and suggesting our reliance on other countries has put us at risk of potential shortages. In reality...the biopharmaceutical industry supports more than 4 million jobs across the United States, directly employing more than 811,000 Americans. Of those jobs, nearly 120,000 are high-wage manufacturing jobs, which is double the percentage of manufacturing jobs compared to the private sector overall...Discussions about enabling more manufacturing in the United States are important, but let’s not forget that the United States already sustains a substantial manufacturing presence that is part of a larger global network. We cannot replace all global manufacturing with solely U.S. manufacturing without upsetting the entire biopharmaceutical supply chain to the detriment of patients...READ MORE