Headline writers were kind of phoning it in yesterday. #takeaways

YouTube transcripts are like my #1 AI use case.

The @washingtonpost.com eddy board has a wildly pro-pharma editorial today.

Good to see innovation recognized.

wapo.st/4k4Pkx2

@matt-levine.bsky.social nails how I think about video.

Like, I don't get the fascination, but it's hard not to see there is demand.

So yes, more dumb LinkedIn videos coming.

Our biggest burning questions on Trump’s order to bring down drug prices Trump's executive order lacks specifics and raises questions on what can be accomplished, what will be challenged in court.

“This has the feel of a Truth Social post in the form of an executive order.”

Big pop @brianreid.bsky.social

www.statnews.com/pharmalot/20...

Is the CMS drug negotiation page down for anyone else?

Props to the Bloomberg photo-captions person.

Thanks to all my wonderful Tufts-CEVR colleagues for putting on another great annual meeting! Proud to work with you!

@dano-hta.bsky.social @brianreid.bsky.social @tuftscevr.bsky.social @mollytoba.bsky.social

A beeswarm chart of canceled NIH grants showing the years into each project when the funding was pulled. Each dot represents a terminated grant and is colored by the number of publications associated with the project: none, one to four or five or more. The grants are separated into thee rows based on the award type (R01, U01, U54). RO1 research projects had the most terminations, which occurred at all stages of research, from the project onset to 7+ years in. Most grants were canceled short of the 4-5 year lifespan of a typical grant, and 40% of R01s had no publications at the time of termination. Projects that had been active for longer had more publications, suggesting that more findings are disseminated in the later stages of these grants.

In terminating hundreds of NIH grants, the Trump administration dumped years of investment down the drain. In my latest @opinion.bloomberg.com column, we analyzed the cancelled projects & talked to scientists to understand just how much the public loses out. It's a lot: tinyurl.com/bdey86su

CMS would absorb 340B drug discount program under leaked HHS reorganization proposal The 340B drug discount program may move under the purview of CMS, according to a leaked HHS restructuring document reviewed by Endpoints News.

@endpts.com got ahold of the HHS restructuring document. My angle this morning: endpts.com/cms-would-ab...

10 Thoughts on Trump’s Drug-Pricing Executive Order I really thought today might be an easy day. I should have known better.

Man, there was a lot packed into yesterday's executive order on drug pricing. Here's my effort to get my brain around all of the moving pieces:

costcurve.beehiiv.com/p/10-thought...

Lowering Drug Prices by Once Again Putting Americans First By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.  Purpose.

There’s a lot in this Trump package of drug pricing executive orders, but perhaps what’s most interesting is what’s not in them:

No signs of life for ending the safe harbor to anti-kickback laws for drugmaker rebates.

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

FDA’s ‘key man’ Peter Marks is out. Biotech investors will now deal with the consequences Peter Marks’ ouster comes at a time when the sector is already suffering through a years-long public markets slump.

FDA’s ‘key man’ Peter Marks is out. Biotech investors will now deal with the consequences www.statnews.com/2025/03/30/f...

Not good.

Reading this Paragon report on Medicaid provider taxes, and I have a lot of questions about the art! paragoninstitute.org/medicaid/add...

This is what happens when a $60B+ program has no oversight.

Is there anyone involved in #340B that can justify this kind of arrangement?

Opinion | The free-living bureaucrat Michael Lewis on Heather Stone of the Food and Drug Administration.

This is an absolutely incredible story - read it. Its so hard to convey what jobs that look like sitting behind a computer are actually *for*. This is what the FDA is for, and why we all need it, desperately. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/int...

@maya-goldman.bsky.social with a scoop on the fate of a bunch of CMMI projects. Two as-yet-unlaunched drug-price demos got the axe.

Probably not a surprise, but clarifying nonetheless.

www.axios.com/2025/03/12/m...

It’s Drug-Price Transparency Season ... But Disclosures May Be on the Wane And a J&J lawsuit over biosimilars is the first shot in the war against PBM-backed pseudo-pharma companies

Drug-pricing transparency reports used to be a big deal. Are retreats from Novartis (last year) and Novo Nordisk (this year) changing that?

From today's Cost Curve:

costcurve.beehiiv.com/p/it-s-drug-...

Also a national treasure: @matt-levine.bsky.social.

Joel Stein is a treasure. Also: health care is broken.

There's an Abbreviation for Everyone Today: PBM, IRA, 340B, RFK, ICER, NPLB It's one of those drinking-from-a-firehose days

Most days, I wake up and write a newsletter with, like, five or six items on drug pricing/policy.

Today, 17 different topics caught my eye.

2025 is off to a wild start.

costcurve.beehiiv.com/p/there-s-an...

I know the world is on fire, but maybe next week will be less chaotic and you would like a little break to talk drug policy? If so, please join me and Laura Tollen at Health Affairs to talk about the next 15 drugs selected for Medicare negotiation!
www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/h...

Will the Price Disclosure for Vertex's Journavx Set a New Standard for Transparency? Plus a bit on how tariffs are going to worsen, not improve, the issues with generic meds in the United States. And Kennedy nears the end of the beginning.

Heck of a few days on the drug-pricing-and-policy beat. A victory for transparent list prices, a little on tariffs, some Kennedy items, the IRA's impact on pharmacies, and a candidate for headline of the year ...

costcurve.beehiiv.com/p/will-the-p...

Looks like if PBMs want to get to know intimate details of my life, they will have to get a pair of binoculars and repeatedly drive around the block like a normal person. www.ftc.gov/system/files...

Love this. @nikillinit.bsky.social nails the #JPM25 ironies.

Nearly Half of U.S. Says Healthcare Headed in Wrong Direction Americans are divided over President-elect Trump's policies for lowering healthcare costs. Views vary by political affiliation, but by two to one, independents think the policies take the U.S. in the ...

Interesting survey from Gallup on attitudes about healthcare in the context of the Trump presidency (HT, again, to @brianreid.bsky.social). Do respondents really believe this, or do Ds automatically hate everything Trump, and Rs automatically love everything Trump? news.gallup.com/poll/654704/...

I shared this story about Jimmy Carter on X last year. I'd like to put it here, too.

It starts with a reporter's keepsake.

These are the notes President Carter handed me after I met him at a $MRK event to celebrate the company's collaboration with the Carter Center to end river blindness. 1/8

‘Murder Hornet’ Has Been Eradicated From the U.S., Officials Say The hornet was discovered in a corner of Washington State. Five years later, a massive mobilization has eliminated the invasive species, at least for now.

At least the murder hornets are gone www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/u...

The benefit design change part of the IRA -- the part that gives beneficiaries the $2,000 out-of-pocket cap in Part D -- is going to cost Pfizer a billion dollars next year.

That $500 million in boosted sales, less $1.5 billion in additional responsibilities in the catastrophic phase.