First Edition: September 24, 2019
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
The Wall Street Journal:
Drugmakers, Worried About Losing Pricing Power, Are Lobbying Hard
Worried drugmakers are stepping up efforts to blunt proposals in Washington that they view as some of the most serious threats to their pricing power in recent years. Pharmaceutical industry trade organizations and outside groups are spending millions of dollars on advertisements attacking the proposals, which would peg drug prices in the U.S. to prices paid overseas and force companies to pay rebates if a drug’s price increases by more than the rate of inflation. For instance, one trade group’s radio ad decries “foreign price controls” imposed by European bureaucrats. (Loftus, 9/23)
Stat:
The Democrats Shepherding Pelosi’s Drug Pricing Bill Have Taken Plenty Of Campaign Cash From Pharma
The fate of Nancy Pelosi’s sweeping drug pricing bill rests in the hands of lawmakers who received more campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry than almost all other Democrats, according to a STAT review of campaign finance records. Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), who chairs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, received $111,500 in contributions from pharmaceutical industry political action committees in the 2018 election cycle — fifth-most of any lawmaker, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Rep. Frank Pallone, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, received $98,500, good for ninth-most. (Facher, 9/24)
The Associated Press:
Appeals Court Weighs Challenges To Trump Abortion Rule
An appeals court is considering whether to block a Trump administration rule that bans taxpayer-funded health clinics from referring patients for an abortion — a rule that has already prompted many providers, including Planned Parenthood, to leave a longstanding federal family planning program. Eleven judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco heard arguments Monday in challenges brought by 22 states as well as Planned Parenthood and other organizations. (Johnson, 9/23)
Los Angeles Times:
A Divided 9th Circuit Could Uphold Trump's New Abortion Referral Rule
A federal appeals court appeared divided along party lines Monday on whether to uphold a new Trump administration rule that denies federal family planning money to clinics that refer patients for abortions. During a hearing in San Francisco, an 11-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals considered whether to reinstate preliminary injunctions issued by three district judges against the new rule. Seven of the judges chosen randomly for the panel are Republican appointees, including two new judges Trump placed on the court. Four of the judges were appointed by Democrats. (Dolan, 9/23)
NPR:
At U.N., Trump Administration Professes 'No International Right To An Abortion'
The Trump administration is calling on U.N. member nations to oppose efforts to promote access to abortion internationally, a move immediately criticized by reproductive rights groups seeking greater access to the services globally. At a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Monday, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar spoke on behalf of the U.S. and more than a dozen other countries stating that abortion is not an international human right. (McCammon, 9/23)
The Washington Post:
Abortion Restrictions Are Costing States Millions Of Dollars — In Fees For The Other Side
In the past four years, taxpayers in states trying to restrict abortion access have paid almost $10 million in attorney fees for abortion providers. That price tag is likely to keep growing as more abortion restrictions are challenged, including three in federal courts today. In an effort to overturn Roe v. Wade, these states are passing laws that severely limit or prohibit abortion, hoping that the courts will uphold them. But when, instead, those new laws are thrown out, the state has to pay the legal expenses for the abortion advocates. That puts taxpayers in the position of having to pay for the attorneys on both sides of abortion battles that often last for years. (Keating, 9/23)
The Associated Press:
Judge Hears Arguments In Challenge To Georgia Abortion Law
Opponents of Georgia’s restrictive new abortion law told a judge on Monday that it violates Supreme Court precedent and should be blocked, while the state argued the law should be allowed to take effect as planned. The law signed in May by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp bans abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, before many women realize they’re expecting. It allows for limited exceptions. (Brumback, 9/23)
The Associated Press:
Tennessee Abortion Clinics Hope To Defeat Waiting Period
The former medical director of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi testified on Monday that Tennessee’s 48-hour waiting period for abortions actually delays the procedure by up to a month. Dr. Sarah Wallett was testifying in the federal trial challenging Tennessee’s 2015 law. Tennessee is one of 14 states with laws requiring women to make two trips to an abortion clinic, first for mandatory counseling and then for the abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. (Loller, 9/23)
The Washington Post:
Planned Parenthood’s Woman In Hollywood
[Caren] Spruch is the rare person in the abortion rights movement for whom the past few years represent a long-awaited breakthrough in addition to a series of terrifying setbacks. She’s Planned Parenthood’s woman in Hollywood — or, in official terms, its director of arts and entertainment engagement. She encourages screenwriters to tell stories about abortion and works as a script doctor for those who do (as well as those who write about any other area of Planned Parenthood’s expertise, such as birth control or sexually transmitted infections). It’s a role she slipped into sideways, but one that now seems to be increasingly welcome in Hollywood. (Caplan-Bricker, 9/23)
The Hill:
Warren Comes Under New Pressure Over Medicare For All And Higher Taxes
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is coming under increasing pressure from her 2020 rivals to spell out how she’d pay for her “Medicare for All” proposal. The pressure comes as Warren builds momentum in the presidential primary race and suggests she is likely to come under a harsher spotlight as other candidates seek to compete with her for the 2020 Democratic nomination. (Jagoda and Easley, 9/23)
The Washington Post:
Biden’s Bungled Attack On Medicare-For-All
A confused reader passed along a tweet with a clip of these remarks. What was Biden talking about? After all, the Medicare-for-all plan advanced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) calls for eliminating premiums, deductibles and co-pays. Yet Biden suggests the plan would raise deductibles. Biden’s staff acknowledges that he misspoke, repeatedly, in this passage. (Kessler, 9/24)
Bloomberg:
Biden-Linked Firm Tests Messages To Undercut ‘Medicare For All’
A new poll by a firm linked to Joe Biden is testing messages designed to undercut support among Democrats for Medicare for All, one of the most contentious issues splitting the party’s top presidential contenders. The survey, commissioned by the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way, found that primary voters start off favoring the government-run health care system by a margin of 70% to 21%, but can be persuaded to oppose it. The study showed that Democrats are most swayed by the arguments that the program would impose a heavy cost on taxpayers and threaten Medicare for senior citizens. (Kapur, 9/23)
The Associated Press:
'Way Too Extreme': Some Democrats Warn Against Moving Left
Sitting outside a coffee shop a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the construction site, Beaver County Democratic Party Chairwoman Terry Mitko worried that the plant would hurt local air quality, but her criticism was largely muted. Asked about her party’s message, she encouraged candidates to avoid issues that turn off local Democrats, like gun control, abortion, impeachment and the Green New Deal. (Peoples, 9/24)
The Associated Press:
'You Are Failing Us': Plans, Frustration At UN Climate Talks
Scolded for doing little, leader after leader promised the United Nations on Monday to do more to prevent a warming world from reaching even more dangerous levels. As they made their pledges at the Climate Action Summit, though, they and others conceded it was not enough. And even before they spoke, teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg shamed them over and over for their inaction: “How dare you?” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres concluded the summit by listing 77 countries that committed to carbon neutrality by 2050, 70 nations pledging to do more to fight climate change, with 100 business leaders promising to join the green economy and one-third of the global banking sector signing up to green goals. (Borenstein, 9/24)
USA Today:
Migrant Children Held By The Obama Administration Still Suffering 5 Years Later
Lawsuits have alleged children held by the Border Patrol are deprived of their rights and treated inhumanely. An inspector general's report concluded that some migrant children would suffer mental trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. For the tens of thousands of children who arrived this year, the long-lasting effects may not have surfaced yet. (Gonzalez, 9/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
‘The Bells Start Going Off.’ How Doctors Uncovered The Vaping Crisis.
Children’s Hospital officials and Wisconsin health authorities considered the vaping threat serious enough to merit public announcement. On July 25, they held a news conference and issued an alert warning about vaping-associated lung illness. The notice started a chain of events that prompted doctors, nurses and health authorities to recognize they had hundreds of similar patients. Once authorities began to issue warnings about a new lung illness, doctors saw its shadow everywhere. In Illinois, a doctor who saw the warning from Wisconsin health authorities reached out for help. Likewise, a doctor at a Utah hospital system, told by a colleague about the alerts, notified her state’s health agency about patients. (Abbott, 9/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
Federal Prosecutors Conducting Criminal Probe Of Juul
Federal prosecutors in California are conducting a criminal probe into e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc., according to people familiar with the matter, escalating law-enforcement scrutiny of the startup. The investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office of the Northern District of California is in its early stages, the people said. The focus of the probe couldn’t be learned. (Maloney, 9/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
Dick Durbin, Longtime Anti-Smoking Advocate, Turns Sights On Vaping
Five days before the Trump administration moved to ban the sale of fruit- and candy-flavored vaping products, acting Food and Drug Administration commissioner Norman E. “Ned” Sharpless received a sharply worded letter from Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.). The message: if Dr. Sharpless didn’t move to ban the flavored products in 10 days, Mr. Durbin would publicly demand his resignation. ... Close observers say Mr. Durbin’s persistence on the issue, along with mounting evidence of death and illness associated with vaping, has long been pivotal in advancing safety issues related to tobacco and nicotine. (Burton, 9/23)
The New York Times:
How Anti-Vaccine Sentiment Took Hold In The United States
As millions of families face back-to-school medical requirements and forms this month, the contentiousness surrounding vaccines is heating up again, with possibly even more fervor. Though the situation may seem improbable to some, anti-vaccine sentiment has been building for decades, a byproduct of an internet humming with rumor and misinformation; the backlash against Big Pharma; an infatuation with celebrities that gives special credence to the anti-immunization statements from actors like Jenny McCarthy, Jim Carrey and Alicia Silverstone, the rapper Kevin Gates and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And now, the Trump administration’s anti-science rhetoric. (Hoffman, 9/23)
Politico:
White House Infighting Thwarts Movement On Guns
Competing factions inside the White House have stymied efforts to unite behind gun legislation, further delaying President Donald Trump from getting behind any plan. On one side is Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and adviser, and Attorney General William Barr. Both are urging the president to back new firearms restrictions — including expanded background checks for gun sales ... On the other side, a group that includes Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son and an avid hunter, and a top aide to acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, is telling Trump he risks losing support from his conservative base if he pushes too aggressively on new gun control legislation, they say. (Kumar and Levin, 9/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
Insurance CEO Took Leave After June Arrest Following Traffic Incident
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Chief Executive Patrick Conway went on leave after he was arrested in June after an allegedly alcohol-related traffic accident, according to the company and the state’s top insurance regulator. Dr. Conway has returned to his post at the major health insurer. State Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey said the health insurer didn’t disclose the incident or the CEO’s move at the time to state officials and added that he thought disclosure was needed for accountability and transparency. (Scism, Wilde Mathews and Bauerlein, 9/23)
NPR:
Allergists Debate Anticipated FDA Approval Of A Peanut Allergy Drug
A panel of experts earlier this month recommended that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approve a new drug for children and teens with peanut allergies. The drug, called Palforzia, was developed by California startup Aimmune Therapeutics to be taken daily in a regimen known as oral immunotherapy. The therapy involves ingesting small doses of peanut protein, gradually increased over months, to blunt the immune system's overreaction to peanuts. When it's effective, patients can become biteproof — that is, able to withstand small amounts of peanut that would have previously caused possibly dangerous allergic reactions. (Landhuis, 9/23)
The New York Times:
Trump Administration Threatens To Cut U.S. Highway Funds From California
The political war between California and the Trump administration escalated Monday with a letter from Andrew Wheeler, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, warning that Washington would withhold federal highway funds from the state if it did not rapidly address a decades-long backlog of state-level pollution control plans. The letter is the latest parry between President Trump and the liberal West Coast state that he appears to relish antagonizing. California’s recent actions on clean air and climate change policy have blindsided and enraged him, according to two people familiar with the matter. (Davenport, 9/24)
The New York Times:
Newark Says Water Crisis Is Easing As Lead Filters Prove Mostly Effective
Officials in New Jersey’s largest city announced on Monday that thousands of water filters handed out to residents had significantly reduced lead in drinking water to safe levels. Bottled water would still be made available, but officials said the crisis that had gripped the city for months seemed to be easing. Testing done jointly by city, state and federal officials found that the filters had been 97 percent effective at reducing lead levels to below a federally acceptable standard, meaning that 97 percent of test results showed the filters working properly. (Corasaniti, 9/23)
Stateline:
On-Site Health Care Could Help Seniors Stay At Home
The nation’s older population is growing rapidly — it’s projected to nearly double by 2050. Many seniors want to stay in their homes, but when they grow older and more infirm, that isn’t always possible. Nor are there enough services — access to transportation and doctors, help managing medication — to make it easier for them to stay at home, according to a 2017 report by the Office of Policy Development and Research in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). (Wiltz, 9/24)
USA Today:
More Blood Pressure Medicines Recalled Over Possible Cancer-Causing Impurity
A recall of common blood pressure medication losartan has been expanded for a fifth time after manufacturer Torrent Pharmaceuticals found a possibly carcinogenic impurity in more batches of the drug, federal health officials said. Three additional lots of losartan potassium tablets and two additional lots of losartan potassium/hydrochlorothiazide tablets were under recall, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Thursday. (Miller, 9/23)
The Washington Post:
For Some With Chronic Pain, The Problem Is Not In Their Backs Or Knees But Their Brain
More than 5,000 years after the Sumerians discovered they could quell aches with gum from poppies, medical science is still uncertain about who will develop chronic pain, how to prevent it and what to do when it occurs. The reasons the same insult to the body can leave one person with short-term discomfort and another with permanent misery have eluded researchers. "Chronic pain is incredibly complex,” said Benjamin Kligler, national director of the Integrative Health Coordinating Center at the Veterans Health Administration. “It is interwoven with all kinds of psychological, emotional and spiritual dimensions, as well as the physical. Honestly, the profession of medicine doesn’t have a terribly good understanding, overall, of that kind of complexity.” (Bernstein, 9/23)
NPR:
For Chronic Pain, Off-Label Naltrexone In Low Doses Seems To Help
Naltrexone, commonly used for opioid and alcohol use disorders, may also help patients with chronic pain — when prescribed in microdoses. But few doctors or patients seem to know about it. (Smith, 9/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
Her Alzheimer’s Research Includes Her Husband
As a lifelong Alzheimer’s researcher, Dorene Rentz sees many brain scans with amyloid plaques, a telltale sign of the disease that ravages the brains and memories of its victims. But there’s one scan she’s unable to see: that of her husband, Ray Berggren. Never did she think that one day her 73-year-old husband would be part of a clinical trial she helped design, whose overall cognitive outcomes she will eventually help analyze. (Reddy, 9/23)
The New York Times:
A Simple Regimen Can Prevent TB. Why Aren’t More People On It?
Tuberculosis struck 10 million people worldwide in 2017, killing 1.6 million of them — a toll greater than that of H.I.V., malaria, measles and Ebola combined. TB is the leading infectious killer around the globe; nearly 1.8 billion people are carrying the bacterium that causes the disease. The world is sorely in need of new ways to prevent TB, not just treat it. Drugs to stave off the infection do exist, but the monthslong regimens are difficult and people often do not finish the prescribed courses. (Mandavilli, 9/23)
NPR:
Doctors Without Borders Calls For More Transparency In Distribution Of Ebola Vaccine
Doctors Without Borders is accusing the World Health Organization of restricting the availability of the Ebola vaccine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Dr. Isabelle Defourny, the group's director of operations, said in a statement Monday that at least 2,000 people could be receiving the vaccine each day, instead of the maximum of 1,000 who are vaccinated daily at present. She called for WHO to supply more vaccines to medical teams. (Zialcita, 9/23)
The Associated Press:
Students Seeks To End Ban Of Blood Donations By Gay, Bi Men
Several University of Virginia students want to overturn a ban that prohibits sexually active gay and bisexual men from donating blood.The Daily Progress reports Austin Houck and others have banded together to create Homoglobin, a social welfare organization with branches at other schools including Virginia Tech and the College of William & Mary. The Food and Drug Administration instituted a lifetime donation ban on gay and bisexual men at the height of the AIDS epidemic in 1983. (9/24)
The Associated Press:
Judge Tosses Lawsuit Challenging Md. Conversion Therapy Ban
A federal judge has thrown out a psychotherapist’s lawsuit challenging Maryland’s ban on treating minors with conversion therapy, the practice of trying to change a client’s homosexual orientation. U.S. District Judge Deborah Chasanow’s ruling on Friday rejected Christopher Doyle’s claims that the state law violates his First Amendment rights to free speech and religious freedom. (Kunzelman, 9/23)
Los Angeles Times:
Early Power Shut-Offs Are New Reality As California Enters Peak Wildfire Season
Russ Brown and other emergency officials in Yuba County have been trying to get the word out. Charge your medical equipment and phone batteries now.
Make sure you have enough nonperishable food to last a few days. Because when the hot winds start blowing, the power to your house may be shut off. (Wigglesworth and Serna, 9/23)