CNBC: U.S. To Impose 100% Tariff On Branded, Patented Drugs Unless Firms Build Plants Locally, Trump Says
President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the U.S. will impose a 100% tariff on “any branded or patented Pharmaceutical Product” entering the country from Oct. 1. The measure will not apply to companies building drug manufacturing plants in the U.S., Trump said. He added that the exemption covers projects where construction has started, including sites that have broken ground or are under construction. (Jie and Constantino, 9/25)

The New York Times: Trump May Try To Force Drugmakers To Match European Prices
The Trump administration may propose a regulatory process to force drugmakers to cut U.S. prices to the lower levels in other wealthy countries, according to a notice that was posted on a federal website. The notice, which was published, then deleted for several hours Thursday, and then republished, refers to a “proposed rule” and a “global benchmark for efficient drug pricing (GLOBE) model” under the Department of Health and Human Services. (Sanger-Katz and Robbins, 9/25)

Bloomberg: RFK Jr. Mulls Adding Autism Symptoms To Vaccine Injury Program
The Trump administration is considering ways to allow people with autism to seek compensation through a government vaccine injury program, according to an adviser, in a change likely to throw it into disarray. The program, called the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, shields companies from most lawsuits and includes a fund that pays people who experience a serious reaction to a covered vaccine. It’s paid out about $5 billion since 1988. (Cohrs Zhang, Muller and Smith, 9/25)

More on the autism controversy —

The Hill: Tylenol Maker Clarifies Old Tweet About Use During Pregnancy
The manufacturer of Tylenol on Thursday clarified an old social media post that said it doesn’t “actually recommend” using its products while pregnant, which the Trump administration resurfaced following its assertion this week that the over-the-counter pain reliever could be linked to autism. ... Kenvue responded to the old post, saying Thursday in a statement, “This is being taken out of context – we do not make recommendations on taking any medications in pregnancy because that is the job of a healthcare provider.” (Choi, 9/25)

MedPage Today: Should Kids Stay Away From Tylenol, Too?
When President Donald Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recommended against acetaminophen (Tylenol) use during pregnancy earlier this week, they also commented on the medication's use in young children. Trump warned against giving babies Tylenol during the briefing, and a letter from the FDA to physicians -- though focused on acetaminophen use during pregnancy -- referenced the developing livers of young children and their potentially limited ability to metabolize the drug. (Henderson, 9/25)

Stat: Tylenol's 70-Year History: From Kids' Drug To Political Controversy 
It’s been 70 years since Philadelphia-based McNeil Laboratories introduced the first pure acetaminophen product to American consumers: Elixir Tylenol, a prescription painkiller and fever treatment for kids. Advertised as being “for little hotheads,” the medicine came in a red paper carton shaped like a fire engine. Since then, it’s become one of the world’s most ubiquitous drugs, but also one whose safety has periodically been challenged. (Molteni, 9/25)

KFF Health News: Off-Label Drug Helps One Boy With Autism Speak, Parents Say. But Experts Want More Data
Caroline Connor’s concerns about her son’s development began around his 1st birthday, when she noticed he wasn’t talking or using any words. Their pediatrician didn’t seem worried, but the speech delay persisted. At 2½, Mason was diagnosed with autism. The Connors went on a mission, searching for anything that would help. “We just started researching on our own. And that’s when my husband Joe came across Dr. Frye in a research study he was doing,” Caroline said. (Gounder, 9/26)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: Public Health Further Politicized Under The Threat Of More Firings
In a highly unusual White House news conference this week, President Donald Trump — without evidence — boldly blamed the painkiller Tylenol and a string of childhood vaccines for causing a recent rise in autism. That came just days after the newly reconstituted Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, now populated with vaccine skeptics and opponents, voted to change long-standing recommendations. (Rovner, 9/25)

In other vaccine news —

NBC News: More Kids With The Flu Are Getting Severely Ill Or Dying As Vaccine Rates Fall, CDC Reports
Christine Wear’s voice trembles talking about the upcoming flu season. “Anxieties are high,” she said. “We’re trying to navigate what life should look like without being in a bubble.” Wear’s son, 4-year-old Beckett, is still recovering from the flu he got way back in January. Within a week of becoming infected, he became extremely lethargic. He couldn’t move his head or his arms. He couldn’t eat or talk. (Edwards, 9/25)

NPR: Doctors Say Trump's Advice On Hep B Shot Is Wrong
It's unusual for presidents to give out medical advice. But in a White House press briefing earlier this week, President Trump questioned the wisdom of vaccinating all newborns against hepatitis B. "There's no reason to give a baby that's almost just born hepatitis B [vaccine,]" Trump said. "So I would say wait until the baby is 12 years old." (Godoy, 9/25)

The New York Times: Kennedy Says U.S. Rejects Global Health Goals
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday said the United States would reject a United Nations declaration on chronic diseases, because it ignored “the most pressing health issues,” and more broadly because the Trump administration takes issue with policies that he described as promoting abortion and “radical gender ideology.” Mr. Kennedy, who gave his remarks to a U.N. meeting on preventing and combating chronic illnesses like cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, did not elaborate on the issues he said had been ignored. (Jacobs, 9/25)

In related health news from the United Nations —

NPR: Dementia Gets Recognition By The U.N.
For the first time, a United Nations declaration is pledging to address dementia. On Thursday, world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly in New York are laying out a new plan for combatting mental health challenges and non-communicable diseases. While their political declaration emphasizes conditions like cardiovascular disease and diabetes, it also mentions neurological conditions like dementia. (Emanuel, 9/25)

AP: Drug Trafficking, Often Unspoken About At UN, Gets Some Limelight
Every year, tons of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs flow around the world, an underground river that crisscrosses borders and continents and spills over into violence, addiction and suffering. Yet when nations’ leaders give the U.N. their annual take on big issues, drugs don’t usually get much of the spotlight. But this was no usual year. (Peltz, 9/25)

More on HHS Chief RFK Jr. —

Axios: New ADHD Lobbying Coalition Launches
ADHD researchers and clinicians have started a new coalition to lobby for evidence-based policy around the developmental condition as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. casts doubt on ADHD drugs for kids. Why it matters: The Trump administration's recent report on the health of American children criticizes what it terms overdiagnosis and inappropriate prescribing of ADHD medications. (Goldman, 9/26)

The Hill: Michigan Democrat Moves To Impeach HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) announced Thursday she would introduce articles of impeachment against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. due to “health care chaos” under his watch. On social platform X, Stevens wrote, “Health care chaos. Reckless cuts. Rising costs. Michiganders and families across the country are paying the price for RFK Jr.’s agenda. Enough is enough, which is why I’m drafting articles of impeachment against @SecKennedy.” (Choi, 9/25)

The Hill: "Stop RFK's BS Act" Introduced By Michigan Democrat
Michigan Rep. Haley Stevens (D) on Friday introduced the “Stop RFK’s BS Act” which would reverse the funding cuts that have been carried out under Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s rule. The bill, according to its text provided first to The Hill, would immediately reinstate grants and awards that have been terminated since the start of President Trump’s second term if it is passed. (Choi, 9/26)

CIDRAP: New Poll Shows Kennedy's Approval Down To 33%
The latest Quinnipiac University poll finds only one third (33%) of surveyed US adults approve of the job US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is doing and that 67% support school-based vaccine requirements. (Soucheray, 9/25)

AP: Report: Nearly Half Of All Federal Funding For Tribes At Risk Under Trump's 'Big Beautiful' Bill
A new report from Portland State University found that budget cuts under President Donald Trump’s new spending bill threaten nearly half of federal funding allocated to federally recognized Native American and Alaska Native nations last year. Roughly $530 million of the $1.19 billion allocated to Northwest tribal nations in fiscal year 2024 — used to fulfill the federal government’s trust and treaty obligations to Native American and Alaska Native tribes — is at risk of being cut. (Henshaw, 9/25)

Bloomberg: Massachusetts Hospitals Win State Help Ahead Of Trump Health Cuts
Hospital systems across Massachusetts — including some of the state’s largest healthcare providers UMass Memorial Medical Center and Tufts Medical Center — are poised to receive a $234 million state funding package as they battle deepening financial strains and cutbacks from the Trump administration. Governor Maura Healey earlier this week signed the bill that includes $122 million for acute-care hospitals and $77 million for the Health Safety Net Trust Fund, which reimburses hospitals and community health centers for services to uninsured and underinsured residents. (Taylor, 9/25)

The New Republic: Trump’s Cuts Are Officially Ending PBS In An Entire State 
New Jersey’s only public television station, NJ PBS, is anticipated to shutter in just over nine months thanks to President Trump’s budget cuts. As first reported by The New Jersey Globe this week, WNET, the company that has operated the station for 14 years since former Republican Governor Chris Christie shut down the state-run New Jersey Network, did not reach an agreement to extend its contract with the state beyond June 30, 2026. (McCoy, 9/25)

Stat: How Research Indirect Costs Work, And The Changes That Lie Ahead
For decades, the federal government has supported the infrastructure that makes biomedical breakthroughs possible at universities, academic hospitals, and other research institutions. But recent moves by the Trump administration and Congress reinforce that this system seems headed for a major shake-up. Earlier this month, the House Committee on Appropriations advanced legislation that would limit National Institutes of Health payments for research overhead, also known as indirect costs, to private universities and colleges with large endowments. (Wosen, 9/26)

Also —

AP: Federal Bureau Of Prisons Moves To End Union Protections For Its Workers
The federal Bureau of Prisons said Thursday it is canceling a collective bargaining agreement with its workers and stripping them of union rights, the latest move by the Trump administration to gut labor protections for federal employees. Director William K. Marshall III told the agency’s nearly 35,000 employees that the union, the Council of Prison Locals, had become “an obstacle to progress instead of a partner in it.” The contract, he said, “too often slowed or prevented” changes meant to improve safety and morale. (Sisak, 9/26)

CNN: Mifepristone: Federal Agencies Are Studying Safety Of Abortion Drug, Driving New Concerns About Limits On Access
The US Food and Drug Administration is reviewing evidence about the safety and efficacy of one of the drugs used in medication abortion to investigate how it can be safely dispensed, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary wrote in a new letter to 22 Republican attorneys general. Kennedy and Makary said the FDA would conduct “its own review of the evidence, including real-world outcomes and evidence, relating to the safety and efficacy” of mifepristone. (Tirrell, McPhillips and Gumbrecht, 9/25)

ProPublica: NIH Launches New Multimillion-Dollar Stillbirth Prevention Effort
The National Institutes of Health has launched a five-year, $37 million stillbirth consortium in a pivotal effort to reduce what it has called the country’s “unacceptably high” stillbirth rate. The announcement last week thrilled doctors, researchers and families and represented a commitment by the agency to prioritize stillbirth, the death of an expected child at 20 weeks or more. “What we’re really excited about is not only the investment in trying to prevent stillbirth, but also continuing that work with the community to guide the research,” Alison Cernich, acting director of the NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said in an interview. (Eldeib, 9/25)

AP: Planned Parenthood Of Wisconsin Halts Abortion Scheduling Amid Medicaid Cuts
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin will stop scheduling patients for abortions starting next week as it works to find a way to provide the service in the face of Medicaid funding cuts in President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill, the nonprofit said Thursday. Abortion funding across the U.S. has been under siege, particularly Planned Parenthood affiliates, which are the biggest provider. Wisconsin appears to be the first state where Planned Parenthood is pausing all abortions because of the new law. (Bauer and Mulvihill, 9/25)

AP: CDC STD Trends: Cases Fall Overall, But Syphilis In Newborns Rises Again
Sexually transmitted disease rates for U.S. adults fell last year, but syphilis in newborns continued to rise, according to new government data posted Wednesday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provisional data for 2024 showed a third consecutive year of fewer gonorrhea cases, and the second year in a row of fewer adult cases of chlamydia and the most infectious forms of syphilis. But congenital syphilis cases, in which infected moms pass the disease to their babies, aren’t seeing the same improvements. (Stobbe, 9/24)

Newsweek: Teens Face Misleading Sexual Health Advice On TikTok, Study Finds
Sexual health-related TikToks have been linked to misinformation and potentially dangerous advice—particularly when related to abortion. This is the finding of a cross-sectional study led by student Angeli Sirilan of the University of Arizona College of Medicine, which involved creating a TikTok account representing a 15-year-old girl. (Millington, 9/26)

MedPage Today: Oral Breast Cancer Drug Wins Broader FDA Nod For ESR1-Mutated Disease
The FDA approved the oral estrogen receptor antagonist imlunestrant (Inluriyo) for previously treated ESR1-mutated advanced/metastatic breast cancer, the agency announced Thursday. The approval stipulates use in adults with estrogen receptor-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer that has progressed on at least one line of endocrine therapy. (Bankhead, 9/25)

In other public health news —

AP: Instagram's 'Deliberate Design Choices' Make It Unsafe For Teens Despite Meta Promises, Report Says
Despite years of congressional hearings, lawsuits, academic research, whistleblowers and testimony from parents and teenagers about the dangers of Instagram, Meta’s wildly popular app has failed to protect children from harm, with “woefully ineffective” safety measures, according to a new report from former employee and whistleblower Arturo Bejar and four nonprofit groups. Meta’s efforts at addressing teen safety and mental health on its platforms have long been met with criticism that the changes don’t go far enough. (Ortutay, 9/26)

CBS News: Sprout Organics Fruit And Veggie Pouches Recalled Over Potential Lead
Sprout Organics is expanding a recall of its sweet potato, apple and spinach pouches, due to potentially elevated lead levels. In an alert posted Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration said the recall was first shared on Sept. 16, but the latest expansion includes additional lots of the 3.5-ounce pouches. (Moniuszko, 9/25)

Modern Healthcare: 71% Of Regional Nonprofit Insurers Ended 2024 With Operating Loss 
Threatened by shrinking operating margins, regional nonprofit insurance companies are falling behind their larger competitors, according to a new report. In 2024, 71% of regional nonprofit insurers ended the year with an operating loss, according to an analysis published Wednesday by HealthScape Advisors, a division of the consulting company Chartis. By comparison, 53% posted operating losses in 2023, and just 22% did in 2020. (Tong, 9/25)

Roll Call: Health Insurance Marketplace Rate Hikes Top 20 Percent In Most States, Cantwell Says 
People who receive insurance through the top marketplace plan in most states can expect sticker shock this fall, according to data compiled by the office of Sen. Maria Cantwell. Cantwell, D-Wash., who’s urging congressional leadership and President Donald Trump to find a way to extend expiring health care subsidies, on Thursday issued a snapshot report on rate increase requests from insurers across the country. In 29 states, rates for the top marketplace insurer are expected to increase at least 20 percent next year, according to the data. (Raman, 9/25)

In Medicare news —

The Hill: AstraZeneca Petitions Supreme Court Over Medicare Drug Prices
Advertisement: 0:15AstraZeneca has asked the Supreme Court to hear its case challenging the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program created through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). According to the Supreme Court’s docket, AstraZeneca’s petition was filed on Sept. 19. The company has asked the court to consider “whether the IRA implicates an interest of pharmaceutical manufacturers that is protected by the Due Process Clause.” (Choi, 9/25)

Modern Healthcare: Humana To End Medicare Advantage Commissions For Plans 
Humana will not pay third-party marketers for enrolling new members in many of its wider-network Medicare Advantage products for 2026. The company will not pay agents and brokers for signing up new members for 288 plans across 46 states and the District of Columbia, according to a notice Humana sent to agents and brokers on Monday. About 80% of these plans are PPOs. (Tepper, 9/25)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Advantage Audit Rule Tossed By Federal Court 
A federal court has tossed a rule outlining how auditors must review Medicare Advantage insurance companies for overpayments, adding uncertainty to the federal government’s plan to audit every plan annually. On Thursday, Judge Reed O’Connor, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Fort Worth, vacated the 2023 Medicare Risk Adjustment Data Validation, or RADV, rule, on the grounds that regulators violated the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946. (Tepper, 9/25)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Advantage Insurers Revamp Supplemental Benefits For 2026 
Supplemental benefit vendors are bracing for another challenging year as Medicare Advantage insurers discontinue plans and downscale the perks they offer members. Health insurance companies such as UnitedHealth Group subsidiary UnitedHealthcare and Elevance Health have announced they will eliminate unprofitable plans and pare back supplemental benefits in 2026 as they seek to restore profit margins amid high spending and stricter regulation. (Tepper, 9/25)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Has Revamped AHEAD. Here's What That Means. 
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has revamped and extended a hospital and primary care value-based care model intended to align payment incentives across payers and providers. CMS announced it is expanding and modifying the Achieving Healthcare Efficiency through Accountable Design, or AHEAD, model it unveiled in 2023, and adding new geography-based elements that could shake up how fee-for-service Medicare enrollees receive care. (Early, 9/25)

AP: Trump Extends Georgia Health Insurance Program With Work Requirements, Despite Red Tape Findings
Georgia’s program that provides health insurance to some low-income adults that document work or other activities has been extended for 15 months by President Donald Trump’s administration. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday that the federal government approved that the Pathways to Coverage program will continue as part of the state-federal Medicaid program through December 2026. (Amy, 9/25)

ProPublica, The Salt Lake Tribune: Utah Reinstates Nicholas LaFeber’s Dental License Despite “Alarming” Care Record
The patients kept coming to the Utah oral surgeon’s office — one after another, year after year — with dental work that the surgeon said had gone wrong. He later recounted in a letter to state licensors that he had seen dental implants that had been the wrong size, patients with chronic sinus infections and one person whose implant had become lost inside their sinus cavity. These patients, he said, had all been worked on by the same dentist: Dr. Nicholas LaFeber. (Schreifels, 9/26)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. ‘MAGA Dentist’ Joke About Harming Liberal Patients Goes Viral
A self-proclaimed “MAGA Dentist” is facing backlash after a video of her joking about turning down pain-relieving gas for liberal patients at her Santa Clarita clinic blew up online. Dr. Harleen Grewal of Skyline Smiles made this quip and other wisecracks about her distaste for left-leaning clients during a speech at the Republican Liberty Gala in 2021, comments that recently attracted mass attention after a video of the speech went viral on TikTok. That video has since been taken down, but recorded versions of it and response videos criticizing Grewal continue to circulate. (Harter, 9/25)

WUSF: DeSantis Announces $60M For Cancer Research
This year’s grants will prioritize studies on nutrition’s role in cancer prevention and treatment, along with other high-impact projects. Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday announced the state is providing $60 million in new grant funding for cancer research through the Florida Cancer Innovation Fund. (Mayer, 9/25)

AP: Survivors Of Maine's Deadliest Mass Shooting Refile Lawsuit Against US Government
The survivors and family members of victims of the deadliest mass shooting in Maine history have refiled their lawsuit against the U.S. government following a new U.S. Department of Defense watchdog report that faults the U.S. Army for a high rate of failure to report violent threats by service members. (Whittle, 9/25)

KFF Health News: 20 Years After Katrina, Louisiana Still Struggles With Evacuation Plans That Minimize Health Risks
In late August 2020, Ashlee Guidry and her staff kept a wary eye on guidance from local officials as Hurricane Laura passed over Cuba en route to southwestern Louisiana. Guidry was responsible for the safety of dozens of people living at Stonebridge Place, an assisted living and memory care facility in Sulphur. For days, Laura was just a tropical storm, wet and disorganized. But the Gulf of Mexico was warm — much warmer than average. Local officials worried the temperatures could supercharge the storm as it spun toward the Louisiana coast. (Parker, 9/26)

The New York Times: How Did Maria Branyas Morera, Who Was The World’s Oldest Person, Live So Long? 
Maria Branyas Morera, then the world’s oldest living person, had one last request before she died. “Please study me,” she said to Dr. Manel Esteller, chairman of genetics at the University of Barcelona’s School of Medicine. A resident of Olot, Spain, she died last summer at age 117. Dr. Esteller and a large cohort of colleagues fulfilled her wish. They examined Ms. Branyas’s blood, saliva, urine and stool to try to learn why she lived so long. (Kolata, 9/24)

The Washington Post: Why The Brain Hangs On To Some Memories But Lets Others Fade
Leo Chenyang Lin was on a trip to New Hampshire two years ago when he stopped to watch a group of squirrels darting through the trees. That “playful moment” stuck with him. By the end of that day, he realized he could recall that moment “in vivid detail” — and also the farm animals he and his colleagues had passed earlier, on their way to their destination. (Timsit, 9/25)

The New York Times: To Treat Prostate Cancer, There Are More Options Than Ever 
It’s among the most common cancers affecting older men. But a diagnosis today isn’t always what it seems. (Dodge, 9/24)

Capital & Main: Too Old To Keep Working, Not Enough Money To Stop
At 70, Walter Carpenter juggles two physically taxing jobs. In the winter, he works at a ski resort restaurant in Vermont, lugging heavy loads. In the summer, he is an attendant at a state park with a swimming beach, a job that has him trudging through sand and heat. Both are tough on his arthritic knees, which he has put off replacing. His bills won’t let him retire anytime soon, even as working becomes increasingly difficult for him. Carpenter knows that if he pushes himself too hard, the results “could be disastrous or fatal,” he said. He worries: “Will my body hold up? Will my heart hold up?” (Euzet, 9/24)

AP: Decades After They Endured Forced Contraception, Greenlandic Women Still Suffer From The Trauma
At age 13, Katrine Petersen was fitted with a contraceptive device by Danish doctors without her consent. She had become pregnant, and after doctors in the Greenlandic town of Maniitsoq terminated her pregnancy, they fitted her with an intrauterine contraceptive device, commonly known as an IUD, or coil. Now aged 52 and living in Denmark, Petersen recalled being told she had been fitted with the device before leaving hospital. “Because of my age, I didn’t know what to do,” she said tearfully. “I kept it inside me and never talked about it.” Later in life, after she married, she was unable to have children. (Brooks, 9/24)

Stat: Despite The Drama And Hype From Influencers, Longevity Science Is Making Real Progress
The longevity field has made major progress in the past decade, but anti-aging hype is getting in the way. (Paul Knoepfler, 9/26)

The Hill: Declassify And Release What We Know About Havana Syndrome
As someone injured in the line of duty for my service, I am counting on Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to declassify and release the Havana Syndrome files. (Mark Lenzi, 9/26)

El Paso Times: How Trump And Texas Could Finally Transform US Health Care
Despite remarkable advancements in medical science and technology, its structural foundation remains frozen in time. (Tom Banning, 9/25)

Stat: Refugee Health Care Must Include Oral Health 
In the 2019 WHO STEPS survey of Jordan — a country hosting millions of displaced people — I expected to see some reference to oral health. After all, the survey gathered detailed data on blood pressure, tobacco use, fruit intake, and diabetes. But there was no mention of dental pain, missing teeth, or bleeding gums. That omission was more than a data gap. It was a mirror reflecting a much deeper problem in global public health. (Mannat Tiwana, 9/23)

The Wall Street Journal: How Young People Learn To Be Unhappy 
By focusing so heavily on stress and depression, we’ve given them the idea that misery is virtuous. (Vijay Mittal and Renee Engeln, 9/25)