Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed an executive order Thursday banning the use of terms like "pregnant person" and "chestfeeding" in state government documents. The terms are to be replaced with "pregnant woman" and "breastfeeding."
The big picture: Legislatures in all but two states introduced more than 500 bills during the 2023 session targeting the LGBTQ+ community, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
CVS Health will voluntarily remove from its shelvessome common decongestants that contain phenylephrine as the only active ingredient, one month after federal drug advisers concluded its oral formulations were ineffective.
The big picture: The decision by one of the nation's largest pharmacy chains is the first major sign of fallout from the recent FDA review of the ingredient.
Four big drug companies are joining with a historically Black medical school to build a database of genetic information from a half-million people of African ancestry that could help address health inequities.
Why it matters: African Americans have been historically underrepresented in scientific and medical research, and account for less than 2% of the known genetic information being studied today.
A Medicare proposal to help alleviate major shortages of cancer drugs and other essential medicines could disadvantage facilities serving vulnerable populations and instigate new supply issues, experts and hospital groups say.
Why it matters: Over 300 drugs have been in shortage this year, nearly the highest amount in a decade, and many health care providers report having to ration drugs or medical equipment in short supply. Despite heightened attention on the issue in Washington, there are few easy fixes.
Pfizer will list its COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid at a price of $1,390 per five-day course when it soon hits the commercial market, the drugmaker confirmed to Axios.
Why it matters: Paxlovid's new listed price, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, will be more than twice the $529 paid by the federal government, which until now has maintained the entire U.S. supply of the key antiviral medication.
Years after it first broached delivering drugs by drone, Amazon is poised to launch a service in College Station, Texas, that it says will airlift certain common medicines to homes within 60 minutes.
Why it matters: It's the latest move by the online retail giant to disrupt health care delivery — and a convenience that could help patients start treatments faster and adhere to prescriptions.
More people are getting prescribed highly effective HIV preventive medications, but there's still a sharp disparity in who's receiving the drugs, new federal data show.
Driving the news: 36% of those believed to be eligible for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, were prescribed it last year, up from 30.2% in 2021, according to preliminary CDC data released Tuesday.
Insurers and some employers contend the Biden administration's recent proposal to bolster coverage of mental and behavioral care could actually backfire and make it more difficult for patients to access quality care.
The big picture: The health care payers are urging the administration to drop major features of its plan, including a new formula to determine whether insurers are improperly limiting patient access to mental health care. And a leading health insurer trade group called on the administration to scrap the whole thing.
After five months of waiting, President Biden's pick for National Institutes of Health director, Monica Bertagnolli, today will get a confirmation hearing before the Senate health committee. And drug development and pricing is likely to loom large.
The big picture: Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) relented on holding up the nomination over his concerns about the Biden administration's lack of action on drug prices.
