Good morning.
Situational awareness: The Justice Department's top antitrust official, told the Wall Street Journal that DOJ is preparing to file new price-fixing charges against generic drugmakers.
Today's word count is 675, or a 3-minute read.
Good morning.
Situational awareness: The Justice Department's top antitrust official, told the Wall Street Journal that DOJ is preparing to file new price-fixing charges against generic drugmakers.
Today's word count is 675, or a 3-minute read.
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
President Trump's new trade agreement with China includes patent protections that could be a big boon to drug companies.
Why it matters: China's enormous population is a lucrative market for pharma, and the country is also actively trying to build up its own domestic drug industry. But it's not guaranteed that China will actually abide by the agreement.
Details: The trade agreement would set up patent protections in China that are similar to U.S. law.
The big picture: This is good news for Big Pharma, especially after biologic protections were recently removed from the trade agreement with Mexico and Canada that's making its way through Congress.
Between the lines: If China complies with the agreement, it'd be great for American drug companies, which could enter the Chinese market with the expectation that their patents would be respected. But it could also be good for China's budding drug industry.
The bottom line, from Axios China reporter Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian:
Go deeper: China offers drug companies market access in exchange for lower prices
Yesterday was the last full day of the JPMorgan health care confab in San Francisco. Here's what caught Axios' Bob Herman’s eye.
The next Humira
A hospital chain is banking on GOP states to flip on Medicaid expansion
The resurgence of a hospital collections firm
The Affordable Care Act reduced racial disparities in health insurance, but that progress has stalled since 2016, a new Commonwealth Fund analysis says.
Between the lines: The uninsured rate among people of color leveled off in 2016, and racial disparities in actual care still persist, even with lower uninsured rates, Axios' Marisa Fernandez reports.
There's an intense lobbying fight over HHS' pending health care data-sharing rules, Politico reports.
Between the lines: The fight involves hospitals, digital health firms and patient advocates.
Details: The rules would give patients patients to access their health information and allow them to share it with third-party apps.
Health software giants like Epic and Cerner say the rules make patients vulnerable to venture capitalists and app developers taking advantage of their data while requiring the companies to give their trade secrets away.