Congress

The Trump administration has directed FDA to take swift action to remove non-tobacco-flavored e-cigarette products from the market as a result of preliminary data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey that shows a continued rise in youth e-cigarette use, especially through flavored products that appeal to kids, HHS announced in a Wednesday (Sept. 11) press statement.

House Energy & Commerce Committee Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and oversight subcommittee Chair Diana DeGette (D-CO) will hold a hearing Sept. 25 during which officials from FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state health agencies will testify about the public health impacts of e-cigarettes, their appeal to young people and the regulatory authorities related to e-cigarette manufacturing, sales and use.

The White House on Tuesday welcomed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s ideas on drug pricing, hiking President Donald Trump’s pressure on Senate Republicans and the drug industry to back a less aggressive, but strongly pharma-opposed, drug-pricing bill passed by the Senate Finance Committee.

The Senate Appropriations health subcommittee postponed its markup of the Labor-HHS spending bill due to a Democratic-offered amendment to block the Trump administration’s changes to the Title X program and has not set a date to reschedule, even though the fiscal year deadline is fast approaching.

A draft of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Medicare price negotiation bill circulating among lobbyists calls for using international prices as an upper limit for what Americans pay for drugs and imposing harsh penalties to keep drug makers at the negotiating table, instead of relying on a third-party arbitrator as a backstop to negotiation.

After health organizations and former FDA heads, including former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb, urged the White House to tap Acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless as the permanent FDA chief, another contender for the role appeared: Stephen Hahn, chief medical executive of MD Anderson’s Cancer Center.

The prospect of Congress passing drug pricing legislation may depend in large part on the outcome of Texas v Azar, the GOP lawsuit to repeal the Affordable Care Act, according to former congressional and administration staff.

Emergency physicians took to Capitol Hill two days before lawmakers return from August recess to lobby for the addition of independent dispute resolution to the Senate’s final surprise billing legislation.

Marijuana vaping devices are now part of the investigation by FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention into the cause of the sudden appearance this summer of mysterious lung illnesses, FDA Acting Commissioner Ned Sharpless said Friday (Aug. 30).