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Presented by PhRMA: Delivered daily by 10 a.m., Pulse examines the latest news in health care politics and policy. | | | | | |  | | By Adam Cancryn and Sarah Owermohle | | | With Alice Miranda Ollstein PROGRAMMING NOTE: Morning Pulse will not publish on Monday Oct. 11. We'll be back on our normal schedule on Tuesday Oct. 12. Please continue to follow Pro Health Care. Editor’s Note: POLITICO Pulse is a free version of POLITICO Pro Health Care's morning newsletter, which is delivered to our s each morning at 6 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day’s biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro.
| | | — Vaccine maker Moderna is resisting White House pressure to allocate more of its Covid-19 shots for donation abroad. — In a major policy shift, abortion rights groups will formally support ending the filibuster. — President Joe Biden will tout Covid-19 vaccine mandates in Chicago today, as his administration pushes for more organizations to impose inoculation requirements. WELCOME TO THURSDAY PULSE — and hope it's a "tall Zoom energy" day for all of you. Send tips to acancryn@politico.com and sowermohle@politico.com. | | | | A message from PhRMA: Some in Congress are considering a plan that would tie medicine prices in Medicare to those in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. This misguided approach is just the latest in a series of government price-setting proposals that threaten patients’ access to medicines and future innovation. Read the five reasons tying Medicare Part D prices to the VA misses the mark. | | | | | | THE WHITE HOUSE SOURS ON MODERNA — The White House wants to send millions more Covid-19 vaccine doses overseas next year. But, so far, it can’t get one of its key vaccine makers to cooperate. Moderna is resisting pressure from the administration to ramp up domestic production promises for its Covid-19 shot in 2022, as officials seek ways to deliver on Biden’s pledge to lead the global pandemic fight, sources told POLITICO’s Erin Banco and your PULSE authors. Top health officials have urged Moderna for months to increase its domestic production. But the company has balked, citing concerns about its ability to balance its responsibilities in the U.S. and abroad. That has infuriated the White House, where officials privately believe the reluctance is driven partly by financial concerns. And it has prompted a series of intense meetings between the two sides in recent weeks. The strain comes as Moderna preps a long-term investment. The company announced early this morning it would build a vaccine-production hub in Africa to produce up to 500 million doses a year. The facility could eventually produce shots for other diseases as well, using the same technology at the core of its Covid-19 vaccine. Still, construction could take years. And it’s unlikely to satisfy an administration that wants to end the global pandemic in 2022 and that invested billions of taxpayer dollars in helping Moderna develop the vaccine in the first place. By contrast, Pfizer and BioNTech — the other major vaccine producers, which refused government aid — have already pledged to deliver 1 billion doses of their shot for international donation by the end of next September.
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FIRST IN PULSE: ABORTION RIGHTS GROUPS WANT TO KILL THE FILIBUSTER — A coalition of reproductive rights organizations are declaring their support for eliminating the filibuster to pass abortion and voting rights bills, POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein scoops.
The group — which includes Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights — is out with a new ad campaign today urging Congress to use “every means necessary” to get the legislation into law. It’s a major shift for the abortion rights community, which has long steered clear of the filibuster debate over concerns that eliminating the 60-vote threshold would make it easier for Republicans to further restrict access to abortion. But the Supreme Court’s planned reconsideration of Roe v. Wade and a wave of state-level abortion bans spurred a revamp of that stance. Late on Wednesday, a federal judge blocked Texas' six-week abortion ban — though the state is likely to apeal, putting it on track for eventual Supreme Court review. “We cannot rely on the courts right now, so we’re working with what we have, which is a Dem majority which has promised two things to the women of color who put them in office: the right to vote and the right to control when they have children,” UltraViolet’s co-founder Shaunna Thomas said. Thomas also criticized Democrats like Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who have cited abortion as a reason to preserve the filibuster, saying the group “won’t stand for senators hiding behind the abortion issue and opposing reform in our name.” Democrats currently lack 50 votes to either abolish the filibuster or advance abortion rights legislation because of opposition from Sens. Sinema, Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and other centrists. WHITE HOUSE DOUBLES DOWN ON VAX MANDATES — Biden is traveling to Chicago today to promote the need for Covid-19 vaccinate mandates, backed by a new White House report asserting mandates have already helped cut the unvaccinated rate by one-third. Some organizations that imposed requirements have recorded jumps in their vaccination rates of 20 percentage points or more, according to the administration — with many breaking the 90 percent overall vaccination mark. Roughly a quarter of businesses have so far imposed mandates, as well as 40 percent of hospitals. Colleges and universities serving 37 percent of all students have a requirement in place. The renewed push comes ahead of planned federal rules requiring employers with at least 100 workers to require vaccinations or regular testing. That could drive a significant uptick in the nation’s overall vaccination rate. But it’s also faced fierce opposition from Republicans and is likely to face a wave of legal challenges as soon as the new regulations take effect. | | | |   | | | | | | MANCHIN, SANDERS AT ODDS OVER SOCIAL SPENDING BILL — Manchin and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) made their most explicit comments to date about the chasm that remains between the size and scope of Democrats’ social spending bill and its health care components, Alice writes. Manchin told reporters Wednesday he’s still insisting on a $1.5 trillion price tag, a number progressives say is unacceptably low. He also reiterated his concerns about universal health and welfare programs creating an “entitlement society.” But Manchin did name a few things in the package he wants to keep, including drug price reform. “It makes no sense at all that we don’t go out and negotiate. The VA does a tremendous job at it. Medicaid does it. Why doesn’t Medicare?” he said. The West Virginia centrist added that his other priorities in the package are programs for children and seniors — potentially including more funding for home health care. Sanders came out swinging later in the day. He accused Manchin of “sabotaging” the package and ripped his calls for means-testing Medicare and other programs. The Senate Budget Committee chair also challenged Manchin — and Sinema — to explicitly lay out what they want to cut from the package and publicly defend that position. GOP SEEKS CBO SCORE FOR DEMS’ HEALTH PRIORITIES — Senior House Republicans want the Congressional Budget Office to do a full analysis of the health provisions that could be included in Democrats’ social spending bill as the party tries to build its case against an eventual reconciliation package. In a letter to the CBO , the lawmakers sought projections for the cost of implementing a series of sweeping new policies, including further expanding Obamacare and extending coverage to low-income people in states that haven’t expanded Medicaid. They also requested estimates for how many more Americans could gain insurance under the plan. “A CBO analysis should be made public as soon as possible so that there is a modicum of transparency surrounding these proceedings,” Budget Committee ranking member Jason Smith (R-Mo.), Ways and Means ranking member Kevin Brady (R-Texas), Energy and Commerce ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Education and Labor ranking member Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) wrote. | | | BIDEN NEARS DECISION ON FDA COMMISSIONER — The administration is zeroing in on a final pick for its FDA chief after a monthslong search that’s proceeded in fits and starts, people familiar with the process told POLITICO. Though the White House was already nearing a selection, the announcement that NIH Director Francis Collins would step down accelerated the timeline. On Tuesday night, Biden responded to questions about the FDA search by telling reporters he’d be “talking about that in a little bit.” The White House has yet to offer a definitive timeline, and it remains unclear who Biden will settle on. But current acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock can only remain atop the agency for another month unless a permanent candidate is formally nominated. If confirmed, Biden’s nominee would face a series of immediate challenges, including shepherding the country through the next stage of the Covid-19 response and managing a burnt-out workforce.
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| | | Christine Simmon is now the executive vice president of policy and strategic alliances at the Association for Accessible Medicines. She’ll also continue to serve as executive director of the Biosimilars Council. | | | A trove of just-released documents shed new light on how former HHS Secretary Tom Price picked up the private-jet habit that would eventually bring him down, The Washington Post’s Dan Diamond and Carol Leonnig report. Some countries are giving children only a single dose of Covid-19 vaccine, amid concerns about the risk they could develop myocarditis, The New York Times’ Apoorva Mandavilli reports. In an interview with Vox, biologist Devang Mehta argues that the Nobel Prizes are skewing how scientists work — and that it’s time to revamp the whole award process. | | | | A message from PhRMA: Some in Congress are considering a plan that would tie medicine prices in Medicare to those in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. This misguided approach is just the latest in a series of government price-setting proposals that threaten patients’ access to medicines and future innovation.
Here are five reasons why the VA is a wrong model for Medicare:
1. Unlike Medicare Part D, the VA uses a one-size-fits-all system that restricts access to medicines.
2. The majority of VA beneficiaries rely on other sources to help supplement their drug coverage, including Medicare Part D.
3. The VA relies on quality-adjusted life year (QALY)-based assessments to set prices for medicines.
4. Imposing the VA system on Medicare is wildly unpopular with seniors.
5. Comparisons between Medicare Part D and the VA fail to acknowledge inherent structural distinctions between the two programs.
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