Sens. Pat Roberts, R-KS, and Heidi Heitkamp, D-ND, and Reps. Lynn Jenkins, R-KS and Ron Kind, D-WI, once again introduce the Restoring Access to Medications Act, proposing amending rather than repealing ACA.
The OTC drug industry targets amending the Affordable Care Act to once again allow direct purchases of nonprescription drugs with pre-tax savings accounts, unlike the broad focus by the Republican majority in Congress and President Trump to repeal or replace ACA.
Meanwhile, dietary supplements would be eligible for the first time for purchases using flexible spending, healthy savings and other pre-tax savings accounts under separate legislation proposing changes in
President Trump's ongoing interest in the policy, which would ensure the US government pays no more for prescription drugs than the lowest price available in comparable countries, continues to gain attention.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. regularly decries the “conflicts of interest” he believes abound in advisory committees, but his concerns, as well as a recent “policy directive” eliminating industry representatives, seem driven by a misunderstanding of the panels’ jobs.
Screening for conflicts and finding the right expertise for a two-day Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee meeting on four products has been complicated by the Trump Administration’s initial communications freeze and subsequent layoffs in CDER.
Pharmaceutical industry organizations offered alternatives to tariffs that could maintain a secure domestic supply chain in public comments filed in response to a federal 232 investigation.
Cuts to the FDA’s policy and legal personnel have prevented dozens of product-specific guidances for generic drug development from being published.
The Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee will meet for two days in mid-May, followed by a Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee’s review of the 2025-2026 COVID-19 vaccine formulation.
Industry is concerned that Prasad may make regulatory flexibility tougher to obtain for cell and gene therapy, while vaccine and public health advocates are angry about Prasad’s criticisms of US COVID-19 policies.
