Good morning from Pharmalot’s Manhattan bureau. Jason Mast here filling in for Mr. Pharmalot. Today, I’m sipping on a warm cup — black, one sugar— while nibbling on a little pastry from a Brooklyn bakery whose name I cannot give away. Now, onto the pharma news. …
The American Hospital Association and several hospital systems are suing the Trump Administration over an upcoming 340B pilot program, STAT reports. The pilot, lobbied for by the pharmaceutical industry, would test a change to how clinics and hospitals serving low income and rural patients pay for medicines under the long-running federal drug discount program. Instead of giving a discount upfront, drugmakers would charge full price for a medicine and then offer rebates. Drugmakers say it’s a necessary change, in light of some wonky consequences of the drug price negotiation provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act. Hospital systems say it would be a massive financial strain, as they’d be forced to pay upfront for costly medicines and then wait for rebates.
Delaying the timing of vaccinating infants against hepatitis B — an idea a federal vaccine advisory group will likely vote on later this week — would neither improve the effectiveness of the vaccine nor make it safer to give to babies, STAT writes, citing a report released today. But it would increase the number of young children who become chronically infected with hepatitis B, an infection that carries a high risk a child will develop liver disease early in life, concludes the report reviewing the scientific data on the hepatitis B “birth dose,” from the University of Minnesota’s Vaccine Integrity Program. A separate research effort, from modelers at several U.S. universities, suggested that delaying the start of vaccination by two months could lead to more than 1,400 babies becoming chronically infected with hepatitis B in the first year of the change, which could result in 304 cases of liver cancer and 482 hepatitis B-related deaths among those children as they aged.
This article is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers
Unlock this article — plus in-depth analysis, newsletters, premium events, and news alerts.
Already have an account? Log in
To read the rest of this story subscribe to STAT+.
