There are some weeks you get to Friday and it’s just nice. The anticipation of some dopamine, some relaxation over the weekend. There are other weeks where you barrel into Friday and cram everything in so that 5 pm can arrive with a cocktail. Guess which week I’m having… three quick things you should know.
One thing. Late last week, the America First Policy Institute, put out a report on international drug pricing and how to stop other countries from charging artificially low prices so that the U.S. could try and cut drug prices (“end global freeloading.”) In the first Trump Administration, most favored nation (MFN) was tried and pulled but the messaging makes such a great soundbite that I have long suspected we’d see it again.
The report suggests seven different policies that could be pursuing including using the U.S.’s trade authority, prohibiting global discounts as a condition of being covered in Medicare, setting Medicare and Medicaid prices based on an average of international prices and including international drug pricing as a reference in the Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare negotiation. Some of these feel like they are dead on arrival but my confidence in making predictions in this Administration is a little shaky.
Tariff me this. Don’t understand the pharmaceuticals and tariffs? Here is your guide.
What doesn’t happen. Yesterday it was announced that 20,000 jobs would be eliminated from the Department of Health and Human Services, including 3,500 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and 1,200 National Institutes of Health employees. Here’s the thing, what won’t get done? Already I’m hearing about delayed requests for advice at the FDA and scientific research uncertainty across the country because of NIH funding/staffing. I heard that Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staff were walking around the NIH halls and grabbing any ID badges that might be left at workstations by folks who might be in a lab next door. Feels eerie.
On one hand, sure, totally fair to make cuts but scalpel versus chainsaw. Do we really know what won’t happen? It’s like that video where the boyfriend thinks the coffee table is magic because things disappear, and the laundry always gets done and folded.
