STAT News – Biotech
STAT+: CDC leadership in limbo as Trump administration set to miss deadline to nominate director
There is no end in sight for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s leadership limbo, with the Trump administration confirming on Wednesday it would not be nominating a new director by a procedural deadline.
To maintain someone in the role of acting CDC director, the administration had until Wednesday to advance a nominee for the position, which has been held by a series of interim figures for all but one month since the start of Trump’s second term. Susan Monarez was confirmed to the job last July, but was fired in late August after pushing back against health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccination policy.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya would continue in the part-time leadership role at the agency, but would be unable to perform some of the tasks of director or acting director going forward. Those functions, called non-delegable in the legislation, will have to be done by Kennedy.
WASHINGTON — Food and Drug Administration officials briefed senators on the agency’s plans for food policy for 2026, according to a person familiar with the meeting.
The agency plans to focus on infant formula safety, updating food labels, defining ultra-processed foods, expanding inspections of food processing plants, and bolstering seafood safety programs, according to a document shared with lawmakers, obtained by STAT.
The meeting comes amid a shift in the administration’s health agenda toward food issues and away from vaccine policy. In recent polls, food reforms have been more popular than the vaccine agenda, catching the attention of administration officials looking to sharpen their message for the midterms.
STAT News – Biotech
STAT+: In private meetings, White House works to win pharma companies’ support for drug pricing bill
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.
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