Congress

HHS Secretary Alex Azar on Friday (Feb. 1) challenged congressional Democrats, who are critical of the administration’s proposal to eliminate drug rebates, to suggest an alternative.

A bipartisan group of 10 first-term House lawmakers wrote a letter to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb on Wednesday (Jan. 30), urging the agency to not allow plant-based products to use dairy terms in their labeling, an issue the agency hopes to resolve as a part of its multi-year nutrition innovation strategy.

The House Energy & Commerce Committee announced that for the first time it will hold a hearing on the controversial case to undo the Affordable Care Act.

Senate health committee leaders on Tuesday (Jan. 29) pushed for a five-year funding package for community health centers -- more than double the funding provided the last time lawmakers extended funding for those providers.

A think tank president says HHS’ proposal to index Medicare Part B drug prices to those in foreign countries references the wrong 15 countries, and his proposal for tweaking the administration’s proposal caught the attention of Freedom Caucus Chair Mark Meadows (R-NC).

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the new Senate Finance Committee chairman, said that HHS Secretary Alex Azar is likely using the administration’s International Price Index model for Medicare Part B to extract concessions from pharmaceutical companies after the committee’s first in a series of planned hearings on prescription drug pricing.

The Senate Finance Committee kicks off its first hearing on prescription drug pricing Tuesday (Jan. 29), but Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) already tweeted that a future topic of investigation will be abuses of the rebate system by pharmacy benefit managers -- an announcement that would typically be made by committee chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

Ensuring generic drug manufacturers have access to samples necessary for drug development, allowing personal drug importation, banning settlements that delay generic competition and improving transparency of the rebate system are realistic legislative goals this session, a health policy aide to Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) said.

Top medical device lobbyists are pitching a legislative proposal that would let FDA accept user fees for new device applications during the partial federal government shutdown. Lobbyists say the proposal would prevent the agency’s device center from running out of funding during the shutdown and allow reviewers to work on a growing backlog of new device submissions.