High Court Again Asked To Weigh In On ‘Skinny Labeling’ On Generic Drugs
The tactic of leaving patented uses off of labels has allowed generic drugmakers to move products to the market quicker. A dispute between Amarin and Hikma Pharmaceuticals prompted the call for another look. Other administration news is about climate change, racial discrimination, and more.
Stat:
Solicitor General Urges SCOTUS To Hear Case On Generic Drug Labels
In a closely watched case, the U.S. solicitor general has urged the Supreme Court to review a controversy over so-called skinny labels for medicines, arguing that an appeals court finding threatens the availability of lower-cost generic drugs. (Silverman, 12/9)
The New York Times:
Supreme Court Hears Death Penalty Case On Intellectual Disability
The Supreme Court will revisit on Wednesday how states assess intellectual disabilities to decide which capital defendants should be spared the death penalty. The justices will hear arguments in an Alabama case that involves how I.Q. tests should be used to assess mental capacity. It comes two decades after the court barred the execution of people with mental disabilities as a violation of the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. (Marimow, 12/10)
In other Trump administration updates —
AP:
EPA Alters Site To Erase Fossil Fuels As Climate Change Cause
The Environmental Protection Agency has removed any mention of fossil fuels — the main driver of global warming — from its popular online page explaining the causes of climate change. Now it only mentions natural phenomena, even though scientists calculate that nearly all of the warming is due to human activity. Sometime in the past few days or weeks, EPA altered some but not all of its climate change webpages, de-emphasizing and even deleting references to the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, which scientists say is the overwhelming cause of climate change. (Borenstein, 12/9)
The Washington Post:
Justice Dept. Kills Long-Time Tool Used To Prove Racial Discrimination
After years of conservative complaints, the Justice Department moved Tuesday to kill a decades-old provision of civil rights law that allows statistical disparities to be used as proof of racial discrimination. The new regulations reinterpret a key plank of the Civil Rights Act and were issued without an opportunity for public comment, which is unusual for major regulatory action. The rules are final and will take effect Wednesday. While they apply only to Justice Department programs, the administration has made clear that it plans similar regulatory rollbacks across the government. (Meckler, 12/9)
The Washington Post:
These Surgeons Want To Treat Patients. A Visa Ban Is Stopping Them
A diplomatic standoff between the U.S. and the Central African nation of Chad is preventing two American doctors from delivering life-changing care. (12/10)
KFF Health News:
This HIV Expert Refused To Censor Data, Then Quit The CDC
John Weiser, a doctor and researcher, has treated people with HIV since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. He joined the CDC’s HIV prevention team in 2011 to help lead its Medical Monitoring Project, the only in-depth survey of HIV across the United States. The project has shaped the country’s response to the epidemic over two decades, but the Trump administration censored last year’s findings and stopped funding it. (Maxmen, 12/10)
Also —
The Hill:
HHS Changes Adm. Rachel Levine's Name On Official Portrait
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) changed the name of former Adm. Rachel Levine, a transgender woman who served as the agency’s assistant secretary under former President Biden, to her birth name, or “dead name,” on her official portrait. HHS confirmed on X Tuesday that the department changed the name during the government shutdown, saying that they wanted to depict “biological reality.” (Anderson, 12/9)
Bloomberg:
Trump Says He ‘Aced’ A Third Cognitive Exam Taken Recently
President Donald Trump said he had recently “aced” a third cognitive exam as he looked to bat down questions about his age and acuity. Trump, in a social media post Tuesday night, said that in addition to a battery of “long, thorough, and very boring Medical Examinations” he had “on three separate occasions, the last one being recently” taken a cognitive examination. “I ACED all three of them in front of large numbers of doctors and experts, most of whom I do not know,” Trump said. (Sink, 12/10)
