First Edition: October 2, 2019

The Associated Press: Trump And Pelosi Aides Talk Drug Costs Despite Impeachment
Even as the impeachment battle rumbled, senior White House and Democratic aides sat down Tuesday to discuss details of drug pricing legislation, officials on both sides said. Passing a law to curb prescription drug prices remains a top policy priority for President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, despite her decision to launch an impeachment inquiry into the president’s efforts to get a foreign leader to investigate political rival Joe Biden. Both sides stressed they were not negotiating during Tuesday’s meeting at the White House, but instead were exchanging information and asking questions. Joe Grogan, a top domestic policy adviser to Trump, called it “a very cordial and productive working session.” (Alonso-Zaldivar, 10/1)

The Hill: Democratic Chairman Proposes New Fix For Surprise Medical Bills
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) is proposing a new way to move forward on crafting rules to protect patients from surprise medical bills. Members of both parties have made it a priority to protect patients from getting massive bills when they go to the emergency room and are treated by one or more doctors who turn out to be outside their insurance network. But the effort has stalled amid a fierce lobbying push from doctors and hospitals. (Sullivan, 10/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Invitation For States To Design Wellness Programs Draws Swift Backlash
The Trump administration will let states offer wellness programs in the individual insurance market that tie premium costs to health goals as part of a pilot program that drew swift rebuke from health policy analysts who said older and sicker people who can’t comply could be priced out of coverage. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a bulletin on Monday outlining the project, which will allow 10 states to design wellness programs that could be incorporated into insurance plans people buy on the individual market. (Armour, 10/1)

Stat: Trump Set To Nominate Stephen Hahn As FDA Commissioner, Pending Vetting Process
President Trump is set to nominate Dr. Stephen Hahn to lead the Food and Drug Administration, pending completion of the vetting process, according to two people familiar with the selection process. Hahn, an oncologist, is the chief medical executive at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Trump interviewed him for the job a month ago. A third person familiar with the White House’s thinking confirmed that Hahn remained the frontrunner and that the administration was completing paperwork and final background checks. (Facher and Florko, 10/1)

The Washington Post: DEA Allowed Huge Growth In Painkiller Supply As Overdose Deaths Rose, IG Says
Even as deaths from opioid overdoses grew dramatically, the Drug Enforcement Administration allowed manufacturers to substantially increase the number of painkilling pills they produced each year, the Justice Department’s inspector general said Tuesday in a report that offers a harsh critique of the DEA. Overdose deaths rose by an average of 8 percent from 1999 to 2013 and by a staggering 71 percent from 2013 to 2017. Yet the DEA, which sets annual quotas for narcotic painkillers produced in the United States, authorized a greater than 400 percent increase in oxycodone output between 2002 and 2013, Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz said, and did not begin cutting back until 2017. (Bernstein, 10/1)

The New York Times: D.E.A. Let Opioid Production Surge As Crisis Grew, Justice Dept. Says
The report said the D.E.A. did not capture enough timely data on opioid abuse or other drug trends. It also noted that the agency had “recently taken steps to address the opioid epidemic, but more work remains.” A spokeswoman for the D.E.A. said in a statement that the agency “appreciates the O.I.G.’s assessment of the programs involved in the report and the opportunity to discuss improvements made to increase the regulatory and enforcement efforts to control the diversion of opioids.” (Fortin, 10/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Watchdog Faults DEA Response To Opioid Death
“Unlike past drug crises, in combating the current opioid epidemic DEA failed to develop a comprehensive national strategy that could have focused and directed its regulatory and enforcement efforts,” the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, wrote in the report, which was released Tuesday. (Gurman, 10/1)

Los Angeles Times: Justice Department Slams DEA For Allowing Dramatic Oxycodone Production Increase As Opioid Crisis Grew
The White House declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency in 2017, a year that saw an average of 130 opioid overdose deaths per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since 2000, there have been 300,000 opioid-related overdose deaths in the U.S. (Díaz, 10/1)

The Associated Press: Johnson & Johnson Settles With 2 Ohio Counties Over Opioids
Teva is the only drugmaker that would remain in the Cleveland trial if Johnson & Johnson’s settlement is finalized. The other defendants still in the trial are distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, Henry Schein and McKesson, along with the pharmacy chain Walgreens. With most drugmakers out of the initial trial, it could mean less focus on how they marketed powerful painkillers to doctors and more on whether distributors shipped opioid orders that they believed were suspicious. (Mulvihill, 10/1)

The Washington Post: Johnson & Johnson Reaches $20.4 Million Settlement In Huge Opioid Case
“The settlement allows the company to avoid the resource demands and uncertainty of a trial as it continues to seek meaningful progress in addressing the nation’s opioid crisis,” Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals said in a statement Tuesday night. “The company recognizes the opioid crisis is a complex public health challenge and is working collaboratively to help communities and people in need.” Under the terms, the company resolves all claims by the counties with no admission of liability. (Higham, Horwitz and Bernstein, 10/1)

The New York Times: Johnson & Johnson Reaches $20.4 Million Settlement In Bellwether Opioids Case
The division of Johnson & Johnson that made the opioid products, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, has said that those products accounted for less than 1 percent of total opioid prescriptions written in the United States. The settlement was not nearly as sizable as the tentative agreement reached by Purdue Pharma with opioid plaintiffs last month, but that deal was intended to release the company from all federal litigation and many state cases as well. (Hoffman, 10/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Johnson & Johnson Agrees To Settle Ohio Opioid Lawsuits For $20.4 Million
The settlement makes J&J the fourth drugmaker to reach such a deal ahead of the trial, slated to begin later this month in federal court in Cleveland. The trial is considered a bellwether for thousands of opioid-related lawsuits that municipalities and states have filed against drugmakers. (Randazzo, 10/1)

The Associated Press: Drug Stores Trying To Remove Judge From US Opioid Litigation
A group of drug retailers and distributors asked an Ohio federal appeals court Tuesday to disqualify the judge overseeing national opioid litigation after the judge himself denied their requests. Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid and drug distributors AmerisourceBergen, McKesson and Cardinal Health told the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati that Cleveland-based U.S. District Judge Dan Polster is not impartial. Polster made the initial ruling on their claim, declining Thursday to remove himself from the massive multidistrict litigation and insisting he has remained neutral. (Carr-Smyth, 10/1)

The Associated Press: Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Georgia Abortion Law
A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked Georgia’s restrictive new abortion law from taking effect, following the lead of other judges who have blocked similar measures in other states. The law signed in May by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp bans abortions once a “detectable human heartbeat” is present, with some limited exceptions. Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, before many women realize they’re expecting, according to a legal challenge. (Brumback, 10/1)

The Washington Post: Federal Judge Blocks Georgia Abortion Ban From Taking Effect
After a legal challenge from abortion rights advocates, Judge Steve Jones of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia issued a preliminary injunction blocking the law while it is argued in court. Jones wrote the plaintiffs met their burden of showing the ban would cause “irreparable harm” and violate a woman’s constitutional right to privacy. He also stated that the U.S. Supreme Court has “repeatedly and unequivocally” held that a state cannot ban abortion before viability. (Schmidt, 10/1)

The New York Times: U.S. Judge Temporarily Blocks Georgia Abortion Law
The Georgia law, signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in May, would have gone into effect in January. It would prohibit most abortions once doctors can detect a fetal heartbeat, which occurs around six weeks of pregnancy. Current Georgia law restricts abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. (Zaveri, 10/1)

Politico: Court Freezes Georgia's 6-Week Abortion Ban
The ACLU, Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood sued the state after Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed the ban into law in May, arguing that it violates Roe v. Wade's prohibition on banning abortion before a fetus is viable, which occurs at about 24 weeks of pregnancy. A fetal heartbeat usually can be detected around six weeks of pregnancy. The law would impose criminal penalties including jail time for abortion providers and was set to take effect in January. (Ollstein, 10/1)

USA Today: Federal Judge Blocks Georgia's Controversial Abortion Ban
The heartbeat bill's exceptions include cases that involve rape or incest when the woman files a police report. It allows for abortions when a fetus is determined not to be viable or the mother's health is in jeopardy. The current Georgia law allows abortions up to the 20th week of pregnancy. (Terry Ellis, 10/1)

The Associated Press: Kansas Conservatives Push To Undo Abortion Rights Ruling
Kansas conservatives are trying to overturn a state Supreme Court decision that protects abortion rights and threatens years’ worth of Republican-enacted restrictions, guaranteeing an election-year fight over amending the state constitution. A legislative study committee opened two days of hearings Tuesday on a ruling in April by the state’s highest court that access to abortion is a fundamental right under the Kansas Constitution. The Republican-led committee is expected to urge the full, GOP-controlled Legislature to put a proposed constitutional change on the ballot next year for voters to consider. (Hanna, 10/1)

The Washington Post: Virginia Abortion Laws Upheld Requiring Ultrasound, Waiting Period And Doctor-Only Procedures
A federal judge in Virginia has upheld the state’s law requiring women to have an ultrasound at least 24 hours before obtaining an abortion and a separate measure requiring physicians to perform the procedure. Abortion rights activists and providers had challenged Virginia laws they said unnecessarily restrict access, particularly for poor women, and make it difficult and expensive for clinics to operate. After an eight-day trial in federal court in Richmond, the question for the judge was whether regulations affecting health-care providers, facilities and patients present a substantial, unconstitutional obstacle for women seeking abortions. (Marimow, 10/1)

MarketWatch: Nearly Half Of Women Who Have Abortions Live Below The Federal Poverty Level
Such restrictions aren’t just about limiting when and under what circumstances women can get abortions — these laws can also affect how much the procedure costs, research suggests. And those who are denied the procedure fare worse economically, some studies have shown. (Jagannathan, 10/2)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Supervisors Vote To Ban Flavored Tobacco And Call For Statewide Vaping Ban
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to ban flavored tobacco products, including menthol, and to call on Gov. Gavin Newsom to pass a statewide ban on vaping. The board had originally held the item for discussion, but ultimately approved it without comment from any of the supervisors as the meeting ran long. The vote came in spite of protests last week by dozens of tobacco business owners and advocates who support vaping and e-cigarettes as aids to quitting smoking. (10/1)

The Associated Press: Los Angeles County Bans Flavored Tobacco Products
Los Angeles County on Tuesday banned flavored tobacco products including e-cigarettes, chewing tobacco and menthol cigarettes amid concerns that the products appeal to young people. The county’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to adopt the ban and to call on California Gov. Gavin Newsom to pass a statewide ban on vaping as health concerns grow. The regulations are opposed by business owners and advocates of vaping who say e-cigarettes help people quit smoking. The vote came on a second reading after initial approval last week. (10/1)

The Associated Press: San Francisco Campaign To Stop E-Cigarette Measure Pushes On
A campaign to defeat an industry-backed e-cigarette measure on San Francisco’s ballot will push on despite the announcement by Juul Labs Inc. that it will stop financially supporting the proposal to overturn a city ban on e-cigarettes and vape product sales. The San Francisco company, the nation’s largest maker of e-cigarettes, announced late Monday that it will end its support for Proposition C after a review of company policies resulting from a leadership shakeup last week. The e-cigarette industry, and Juul in particular, face mounting scrutiny from federal and local governments over youth vaping and as the 14th U.S. death linked to vaping was reported in Nebraska. (Har, 10/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Juul Hires Another Top Altria Executive
Juul Labs Inc. is bringing over a second high-ranking executive from Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc. as the vaping startup attempts to repair its damaged relationship with regulators amid a rise in teen vaping. Joe Murillo, who headed regulatory affairs for Altria and previously ran the tobacco company’s e-cigarette business, is now Juul’s chief regulatory officer, according to an internal memo sent Tuesday to staff. (Maloney, 10/1)

The New York Times: Vaping Lung Illnesses: Tracking The Outbreak
Hundreds of people have been sickened by lung illnesses linked to vaping, most by using THC products. (Corum, 10/1)

The Associated Press: Medicaid Expansion Subject Of N Carolina Democrats' Hearing
North Carolina Democrats at the legislature are trying to build momentum to expand Medicaid to more low-income residents now that some House Republicans recently revived the idea. The House and Senate minority leaders scheduled a hearing for Tuesday at the Legislative Building on the need to offer Medicaid to more uninsured adults. Other expansion advocates planned a news conference earlier in the morning. The hearing isn’t an official committee meeting, so no bill can move through the legislative process there. (10/1)

The Associated Press: Judge: Treatment Of Tennessee Inmates With Hep C Improving
A federal judge in Nashville ruled this week that Tennessee’s treatment of prisoners with hepatitis C is not grossly inadequate but warned the state to make good on its promises to treat more patients more quickly. In a Monday ruling, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw noted that Tennessee has made a number of changes to improve treatment of the sometimes deadly disease within the past few months. (Loller, 10/1)

The Associated Press: Federal Lawsuit Targets West Virginia Foster Care System
The overwhelmed foster care system in opioid-ravaged West Virginia has failed to protect children, according to a federal lawsuit filed Monday. The lawsuit seeking class-action status was filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of a dozen children against Gov. Jim Justice, the state Department of Health and Human Resources and other state officials. (Raby, 10/2)

The Associated Press: Gun Control Risks Losing Momentum As Impeachment Fever Rises
After back-to-back mass shootings in Ohio and Texas this summer, gun control burst back on the scene as a major political issue for Democrats. Now it risks taking a back seat as impeachment fever overtakes Washington. Gun control advocates are determined to prevent that from happening. (Ronayne, 10/2)

The Associated Press: UPS Gets Government Approval To Become A Drone Airline
UPS has won government approval to operate a nationwide fleet of drones, which will let the company expand deliveries on hospital campuses and move it one step closer to making deliveries to consumers. Many regulatory obstacles remain, however, before UPS — or other operators who are testing drones — can fill the sky over cities and suburbs with drones carrying goods to people’s doorsteps. (Koenig, 10/1)

The Wall Street Journal: UPS Gets FAA Nod For Widespread Drone Deliveries
United Parcel Service Inc. said it received the first-of-its-kind federal approval to start setting up a fleet of unmanned aircraft to deliver health supplies and eventually consumer packages potentially throughout the U.S. In the latest regulatory boost for expanded commercial drone services, the company also intends to gradually phase in routine night flights and heavier cargo limits—areas now generally off-limits to most operators. (Pasztor, 10/1)

CNN: UPS Broke Into Drone Deliveries Shuttling Medical Samples. Now It's Ready To Take Off
Over the past six months, UPS has already made 1,100 medical sample deliveries at a Raleigh, North Carolina, hospital under a government pilot program. The deliveries travel 150 meters from one hospital location to another. Now UPS plans to expand to more than 20 hospitals over the next two years. (McFarland, 10/1)

Los Angeles Times: Novartis And Microsoft Join Forces To Develop Drugs Using AI
Novartis and Microsoft announced they are joining forces to apply artificial intelligence to some of the most intractable problems in healthcare, in one of the most expansive tie-ups so far between big pharma and big tech. Under one part of the five-year agreement, which will be reviewed annually, Microsoft will work on new tools intended to make it easier to apply AI to all areas of the Swiss pharmaceutical company’s business, from finance to manufacturing. (Neville and Waters, 10/1)

USA Today: Zantac Pulled Over Cancer Risk: What We Know
Zantac and its generic varieties are coming off store shelves after the Food and Drug Administration revealed it found a chemical that could be linked to cancer. Monday, pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens announced they would suspend sales of Zantac brand pills and generic versions that contain ranitidine, the active ingredient of the drug commonly used to treat heartburn after the FDA found a "low level" of a possible carcinogen called nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). Although the chains suspended sales, the FDA said it's not recommending users stop taking the drug. Zantac maker Sanofi said it isn't halting shipments of the drug in the USA. (Molina, 10/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Bayer Bows To Investors With New Board Appointment
Bayer AG Tuesday appointed a prominent U.S. agriculture expert to its board in the German chemicals and pharmaceuticals company’s latest effort to convince investors that it has its troubled crop-science business under control. Bayer said Ertharin Cousin, a former director of the United Nations World Food Program, would succeed German manager Thomas Ebeling on its supervisory board. (Bender, 10/1)

Los Angeles Times: Campus Gynecologist Caused Spike In Sexual Crime Reports In 2018, USC Officials Say
Reports of sex offenses at the University of Southern California rose sharply last year, a spike that campus officials say results from a mass of allegations of sexual misconduct against former campus gynecologist George Tyndall. The annual security and fire safety report, released by the university Tuesday, shows 92 reports of rape and 25 reports of fondling last year, a combined increase of more than 200% from the prior year. In 2017, the university received 17 reports of rape and 17 reports of fondling, according to the document. (Fry, 10/1)

NPR: 'Tantalizing' Results For A Test Of Vitamin C For Sepsis
Could the leading cause of death in hospitals be curtailed with a safe and inexpensive treatment that includes vitamin C? That question has been on the minds of intensive care doctors since the spring of 2017, when a well-known physician asserted that he was saving the lives of most of his patients with sepsis by using a treatment based on intravenous vitamin C. (Harris, 10/1)

The New York Times: Hysterectomy May Raise Depression And Anxiety Risk
Women who have a hysterectomy may be at increased risk for depression and anxiety, a new study reports. Researchers used medical records of 2,094 women who had had a hysterectomy without removal of the ovaries, matching them with the same number of women of the same age who had not had the operation. None of the surgeries were performed to treat cancer. They followed them for an average of 22 years. (Bakalar, 10/1)

NPR: Workers Are Falling Ill, Even Dying, After Making Kitchen Countertops
Artificial stone used to make kitchen and bathroom countertops has been linked to cases of death and irreversible lung injury in workers who cut, grind, and polish this increasingly popular material. The fear is that thousands of workers in the United States who create countertops out of what's known as "engineered stone" may be inhaling dangerous amounts of lung-damaging silica dust, because engineered stone is mostly made of the mineral silica. (Greenfieldboyce, 10/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Meat Strikes Back As Diet Wars Rage On
On Wall Street, meat substitutes are all the rage. But in the world of dietary science, meat may be making a comeback. This was underscored by the publication Tuesday of findings by a team of researchers in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The team conducted four systematic reviews of various studies examining links between red or processed meat and cardiovascular health, cancer risk and other health outcomes. They concluded that the evidence isn’t strong enough to recommend that people reduce their consumption of red meat or processed meats. (Back, 10/1)

The New York Times: Being Young, Active And Physically Fit May Be Very Good For Your Brain
Physically fit young adults have healthier white matter in their brains and better thinking skills than young people who are out of shape, according to a large-scale new study of the links between aerobic fitness and brain health. The findings suggest that even when people are youthful and presumably at the peak of their mental prowess, fitness — or the lack of it — may influence how well their brains and minds work. (Reynolds, 10/2)