STAT+: Pharmalittle: We're reading about the RFK Jr. confirmation hearings, CMS plans for drug-pricing talks, and more

Top of the morning to you, and a fine one it is. Clear blue skies and chilly breezes are wafting across the Pharmalot campus, where the official mascots are snoozing after foraging for their breakfast and rousing the neighbors. This means we are free to focus on the matters at hand — rummaging through our to-do list and making cups of stimulation. Our choice today is cinnamon vanilla. As always, we invite you to join us. Meanwhile, here is the latest menu of tidbits to help you get started yourself. We hope that your day is simply smashing and that you conquer the world. And of course, do keep in touch. We have adjusted our settings to accept postcards and telegrams. …

In his first confirmation hearing before U.S. senators as President Trump’s health secretary nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tried to distance himself from his past statements on abortion and vaccines, but offered no concrete details on how he would tackle the nation’s chronic disease epidemic, STAT tells us. Kennedy, while surrounded by many supporters, faced sometimes combative questions on dozens of topics, spanning from Trump’s recent executive orders and funding freezes to Medicaid, public health agencies, infectious disease outbreaks, the food supply, and more. Among the comments he was pressed on were those he had made about vaccines, including the debunked claim that they can cause autism — an idea RFK Jr. has persistently spread over many years, even as recently as 2021. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pointed to Kennedy’s financial ties to a law firm that has pursued litigation on vaccines. She asked if he would promise to forgo collecting legal fees from lawsuits against drug companies; Kennedy refused to do so. 

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is seeking to bring more transparency to drug price negotiations, indicating plans to move forward with the second round of the program initiated by the Biden administration, Bloomberg Law explains. “As the second cycle begins under the Trump Administration, CMS is committed to incorporating lessons learned to date from the program and to considering opportunities to bring greater transparency in the negotiation program,” the agency said in a statement. “CMS intends to provide opportunities for stakeholders to provide specific ideas to improve the Negotiation Program, consistent with the goals of achieving greater value for beneficiaries and taxpayers and continuing to foster innovation.” The statement is the agency’s first on the program following President Trump’s return to the White House on Jan. 20. The pharmaceutical industry has long pushed back on the Inflation Reduction Act’s price-setting provisions, claiming it will harm innovation and affect patient access to medicines. Some companies have said they will ask Trump to pause the process.

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