Health (Page 57)

WASHINGTON — The White House has drafted legislative text for its drug pricing policy, and officials are in the process of sharing it with more than a dozen major pharmaceutical companies, according to people familiar with the meetings.

The legislative text, according to a White House official, closely follows the outlines of the voluntary deals the administration made with pharma companies. The draft includes a policy that would allow drugs purchased in cash to count toward a patient’s deductible.

The Trump administration’s push for drug price legislation is part of a larger effort to get health reforms signed into law. The president’s focus on his affordability agenda in an election year has heightened the profile of the effort.

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The NIH’s foreign subaward crackdown is scrambling global collaborations, while China’s rapid ascent is reshaping drug development. Meanwhile, Wave Life Sciences sheds half its value on underwhelming obesity results.

Also, breaking: I’m adopting a rogue backyard tortoise and will name it Philbert.

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Get your daily dose of health and medicine every weekday with STAT’s free newsletter Morning Rounds. Sign up here.

Good morning. We’re down to the final four in our annual STAT Madness competition. In one matchup, research on a biomarker for Alzheimer’s has a solid lead over an AI cell modeling project. In the other, a smart floss that tracks hormones trails a study on the connection between triglycerides and aneurysms. Vote today, vote tomorrow!

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Hired someone new and exciting? Promoted a rising star? Finally solved that hard-to-fill spot? Share the news with us, and we’ll share it with others. That’s right. Send us your changes, and we’ll find a home for them. Don’t be shy. Everyone wants to know who is coming and going.

And here is our regular feature in which we highlight a different person each week. This time around, we note that Averna Therapeutics hired Robert Mabry as chief scientific officer. Previously, he worked at Hillstar Bio, where he was chief executive officer. And before, Mabry was global head of biologics at Takeda Pharmaceuticals.

But all work and no play can make for a dull chief scientific officer.

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And so, another working week will soon draw to a close. Not a moment too soon, yes? This is, you may recall, our treasured signal to daydream about weekend plans. Our agenda is still shaping up, although we do plan to attack our to-do list of chores and errands, promenade with the official mascots, and escort Mrs. Pharmalot to a soiree. We also hope to hold yet another listening party, where the rotation will likely include this, this, this, this and this. And what about you? Now that spring has sprung, there is opportunity to explore the great outdoors. Depending on your mood, you could hike a trail, stroll a city street, or, our favorite activity, take a long drive to nowhere. For those of you who prefer to stay home, there is always a good book or a flick on the telly. The possibilities are endless. Well, whatever you do, have a grand time. But be safe. Enjoy, and see you soon. …

Novo Nordisk appointed Poul Weihrauch, who is chief executive officer of the Mars candy company, as board observer amid a move by the drug maker to strengthen its position in the highly competitive U.S. obesity market, Reuters points out. Novo Nordisk and its majority shareholder, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, carried out a leadership shake-up last year, replacing the chief executive officer ​and restructuring the board. This included the consolidation of Lars Rebien Sorensen’s leadership role through his ⁠appointment as board chair in addition to his role as chair of the foundation. Sorensen has promised ​to strengthen the board’s pharmaceutical and commercial expertise after criticizing the previous board for being slow to address U.S. market challenges. Novo is ​trying to boost consumer credentials in the U.S. market in a number of ways under its new management. In January, it launched its Wegovy pill across multiple cash-pay channels, rather than solely through traditional insurance routes.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a gene therapy for severe leukocyte adhesion deficiency type 1 (LAD-1), an ultra-rare disease that leaves children vulnerable to life-threatening infections, STAT notes. The therapy, marketed as Kresladi, was developed by Rocket Pharma and was initially rejected by the agency in 2024 over manufacturing concerns. Recently, though, the FDA has indicated its willingness to relax some of its manufacturing requirements to ease such therapies along. Rocket is likely to charge millions of dollars for the one-time treatment, but Kresladi is not expected to be a major money maker. LAD-1 is thought to affect only around 1 in a million people, with Rocket estimating around 25 new cases per year. The approval, however, will earn the company an FDA priority review voucher that can be used to have another drug approved in just six months, rather than the typical 10.

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Decades after the Vietnam War, hematologist-oncologist Mikkael Sekeres began seeing veterans in his clinic with myelodysplastic syndromes, a group of blood cancers known as MDS. Many of the vets had been exposed to Agent Orange, a blend of herbicides that the military used to peel back dense foliage during the war.

This exposure has long been linked to many serious diseases, including several cancers, but not MDS — until now. In data published this month in Blood Advances, Sekeres and his colleagues were able to provide clear evidence that Agent Orange exposure is linked to MDS and can cause earlier, more aggressive disease.

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