Half of the drugmakers required to report information about significant quality problems with products they shipped failed to do so between 2018 and 2021, Axios' Adriel Bettelheim writes about a new FDA report on pharmaceutical quality.
Why it matters: The so-called field alert reports (FARs) are a key barometer of drug plant quality and are used to assess the risk to the public and the adequacy of a company's response.
As Medicare's open enrollment season approaches, it's possible a majority of seniors will choose a Medicare Advantage plan for next year rather than traditional Medicare, according to a KFF report.
Why it matters: Medicare Advantage has been growing quickly thanks to promises of capped out-of-pocket costs, vision and dental benefits, and perks like fitness classes.
Moderna is suing Pfizer and BioNTech, alleging they copied technology that Moderna first developed years before the pandemic in producing the first COVID-19 vaccine approved in the U.S., the company announced Friday.
Driving the news: Moderna is seeking unspecified monetary damages for patent infringement. It said its lawsuit is not seeking to take its competitors' vaccine off the market or an injunction to stop its future sale.
The Biden administration is marking a day of action Friday on reproductive rights, recognizing the impact the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson has had on access to abortion in the last two months, officials said.
Driving the news: The administration and the Department of Health and Human Services are hosting a meeting at the White House with state and local elected officials from across the country to discuss how states can protect access to care and how their efforts can supported at the federal level.
With the midterms looming, vulnerable congressional Democrats are wagering that health care provisions in the just-passed $740 billion reconciliation bill will give them an edge and possibly preserve their razor-thin majorities.
Why it matters: Recent projections show Republicans likely to flip control of the House. But Democrats are trying to reprise their 2018 campaign playbook with messaging around bill language allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of some drugs and extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies for three years.
Public health messaging on both COVID and monkeypox has been too disjointed, confusing Americans on what steps they need to take to mitigate their risks.
Between the lines: Viruses often have multiple routes of transmission, and educating the public on the likeliest route to infection can be a balancing act for officials who want to cover all their bases and have to account for unknowns and public mistrust, several experts tell Axios.
Public health messaging around how monkeypox is and can be transmitted needs to greatly improve so that individuals can assess their own risks, several experts tell Axios.
Why it matters: There are multiple transmission routes for a virus that's now in every state and has become a public health emergency. These include close body contact, air and surfaces — but the primary route currently appears to be personal, often skin-to-skin contact.
As many as 4.1 million people may remain out of work due to long COVID symptoms, according to a new estimate from Katie Bach, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Why it matters: That figure, which incorporates four new questions about long COVID from the Census Household Pulse Survey, is more than twice an earlier estimate and could help explain the lingering labor shortages in America.
Novartis on Thursday announced plans to spin off its Sandoz generic drugs unit into a standalone company whose shares would trade in both Switzerland and the U.S.
Why it matters: This would create Europe's largest generics company by sales, and comes just a few years after Novartis spun off its Alcon eye care business (now valued at over $34 billion).
Worldwide cases of monkeypox have dropped 21% over the past week, the World Health Organization said in a report released Thursday.
Why it matters: Although the results would need to be confirmed, the latest figures could be an early signal that cases in Europe are beginning to decline, reversing weeks of rising infections, according to the report.
States that have enacted abortion restrictions or bans also have "systemic" barriers in place that impede "the health and economic security of pregnant and birthing people and their families," according to a new report from the nonpartisan and nonprofit National Partnership for Women & Families first shared with Axios.
Driving the news: The report, which comes as three states are poised to enact trigger bans, shows that gaps in policies remain.
President Biden's student loan forgiveness may help medical students chip away at the mountains of debt they accumulate, especially if they still owe from their undergraduate studies.
Why it matters: Almost three quarters of all medical school students had education debt when they graduated in 2021, most of it usually tied to federal loans.
Health care prices overall may be lagging inflation, but there's a widening divergence between what's being paid in Medicare and the private sector, according to a new Altarum analysis.
Why it matters: Privately-insured Americans are about to pay more for their health care, if they aren't already.
Some of the biggest hospital chains are seeing business rebound to pre-pandemic levels, but the industry as a whole is pressing for more federal relief before year's end, citing inflation, labor and supply cost pressures.
Why it matters: Hospitals are the biggest driver of U.S. health care spending, and the pandemic has tested Washington's willingness to take on the powerful industry.
Why it matters: The ban that's set to take effect Thursday would outlaw abortion in the state unless a pregnant person's life were endangered or if the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest that was reported to law enforcement.
