Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said this week that Texans who are victims of rape can take emergency contraception, the Dallas Morning News reports.
Why it matters: Abbott's comments come as Texas has enacted an abortion ban that makes no allowances for incest or rape victims. However, access to contraceptives and the pill known as Plan B remain legal.
Bayer agreed to pay $40 million to settle claims over its alleged use of kickbacks and false statements related to three prescription drugs, the Department of Justice announced Friday.
The big picture: The lawsuits were brought against Bayer under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act, which allow private citizens to bring suit — on behalf of the government — against entities suspected of defrauding the government.
Genetic testing company Illumina on Thursday prevailed over the Federal Trade Commission in an administrative court trial over its $7.1 billion acquisition of Grail, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based developer of liquid biopsies for early cancer detection. Illumina had founded Grail, but spun it off in 2017.
Why it matters: This is a stinging loss for the FTC, particularly given that the case was heard by its in-house court, and a huge win for Illumina's decision to complete the merger in spite of ongoing litigation.
One of the more shocking elements from life expectancy data released earlier this week by the CDC was just how much some racial and ethnic groups saw their expected life span shorten.
Driving the news: American Indians and Alaska Natives saw their life expectancy fall six and a half years in the first two years of the pandemic to just over 65 years.
The Department of Veterans Affairs said Friday it plans to provide abortions in cases of rape, incest and when birth may present a danger to a woman's health — "regardless of state restrictions."
The federal government on Friday suspended its program for ordering free at-home COVID tests "because Congress hasn’t provided additional funding to replenish the nation’s stockpile of tests."
Why it matters: The Biden administration is suspending new orders to preserve "limited supply" to ensure there are tests available in the fall when it's possible "we might face a new rise in infections and more acute need," a senior administration official said in a statement to Axios.
A federal database intended to disclose nursing home ownership has spotty and incomplete information that can obscure whether a private equity firm controls a facility, a new report from Public Citizen finds.
Paxlovid, once hailed as a "game-changer" for its ability to treat COVID-19 infections at home, is becoming one of the pandemic's biggest enigmas.
The intrigue: There's growing concern about the link between Pfizer's antiviral pill and COVID rebound, in which patients test positive or have symptoms days after a course of the drug is completed. President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden and NIAID Director Anthony Fauci have each relapsed.
