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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 Krista Mahr and Sarah Owermohle | | | With Rachael Levy 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.
| | | — Moderna is loosening some patent controls in a landmark move to let certain countries produce its vaccine. — Congress needs to OK new funding but is sparring over pandemic relief boosts. — Some doctors aren’t satisfied with Biden’s Medicare revamp, arguing it’s the same-old direct contracting model. WELCOME TO TUESDAY PULSE — Did anyone go on a stroll in yesterday’s warm weather? And happen upon Yo-Yo Ma playing outside the Russian embassy? Send news and tips to kmahr@politico.com and sowermohle@politico.com.
| | | | A message from PhRMA: According to a new poll, Americans would like to see Congress focus more on reducing the overall costs of health care coverage such as premiums, deductible, and copays (71%) over reducing the costs of prescription drugs (29%). This extends across party lines; 73% of Democrats and 64% of Republicans would like to see Congress focus on reducing overall costs of coverage. Read more. | | | | | | MODERNA EASES UP ON PATENT PROTECTIONS — Moderna made a flurry of announcements Monday evening to shore up their commitment to vaccine equity, including a pledge not to enforce its patents on Covid-19 vaccines in 92 low- and middle-income countries that are part of the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment. It was a bold move for the biotechnology firm that’s faced a steady stream of scrutiny for not sharing its lifesaving technology more widely while much of the world remains without ample vaccine access. The company said in a statement that it won’t enforce its mRNA vaccine technology patents on manufacturers producing vaccines in or for the 92 countries on the AMC list. The rest of the world can pay. “Moderna remains willing to license its technology for COVID-19 vaccines to manufacturers in these countries on commercially reasonable terms,” said the statement. The company also said it had penned a memorandum of understanding with Kenya to build a “state-of-the-art” mRNA manufacturing facility and planned to invest as much as $500 million into the project, which could yield as many as 500 million vaccine doses a day. All this action takes place against the backdrop of two diverging narratives about the state of the pandemic: one led by wealthy Western nations readying their citizens to move on and the other by low- and middle-income nations that are still highly vulnerable to fresh outbreaks. To many in the latter camp, including the WHO, the vaccine equity gap has emphasized the need for regions like Africa, which has the world’s lowest vaccination rate, to end their reliance on Western companies and governments for their health security and establish their own manufacturing capacity for this pandemic and beyond. THE SHUTDOWN CLOCK IS TICKING — Congressional leaders are running out of time in their hustle to negotiate a $1.5 trillion government funding package before the next shutdown deadline hits Friday, POLITICO’s Jennifer Scholtes reports. If top lawmakers can’t strike a deal today, Congress will need to ready a short-term spending patch to buy more time to land the sweeping funding deal that’s eluded them for more than five months. But negotiators in both parties say hope isn’t dead yet. Party leaders are still trading offers, and it will take hours more to finalize bill text if they reach an agreement. Pandemic relief is a sticking point as GOP lawmakers resist the White House’s request for $22.5 billion in emergency funding for ongoing pandemic work. Top Republicans have demanded that the Biden administration first provide a full accounting of cash left over from previous state-aid money. "There's a lot of unspent money,” said Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), his party’s top Senate appropriator. “We want the real numbers. … And we ought to be careful before we just go borrowing more money." Senate Appropriations Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has defended the inclusion of emergency pandemic funding amid the Biden administration’s rollout this month of a new strategy for handling Covid and declaration that the U.S. has made “strong progress” in combating the virus. Covid continues to kill more than a thousand people every day in the U.S.
| | | | HAPPENING TODAY, INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY, AN IMPORTANT CONVERSATION ON THE WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN: Join Women Rule editor Elizabeth Ralph for a panel discussion on the future for Afghan women. Guests include Hawa Haidari, a member of the Female Tactical Platoon; Cindy McCain, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture; Roya Rahmani, Afghanistan's first female ambassador to the U.S.; and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.). Learn how female Afghan veterans are planning their futures, what the women still in Afghanistan face, and what the U.S. can do to help. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | FIRST IN PULSE — MEDICARE GROUP DOUBLES DOWN — An advocacy group that wants to end a Trump-era Medicare experiment is redoubling its efforts after the Biden administration recently announced changes to the program, Rachael scoops. Physicians for a National Health Program and 250 other groups are sending a letter today to HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra and CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. In it, they demand an end to the direct-contracting program. The revamped program “retains the most dangerous elements of Direct Contracting, and under the guise of promoting equity, provides even more opportunities for middlemen to profit at the expense of beneficiaries and the Medicare Trust Fund,” the groups write. The direct-contracting model came under fire from prominent progressive Democrats in recent months. The administration announced it would revamp the model after Obama-era health officials and lobbyists rushed in to save it. CMS “will review the letter and appreciate stakeholder engagement,” a spokesperson told Rachael.
| | | | A message from PhRMA:   | | | | | | BIPARTISAN GROUP RALLIES FOR VALUE-BASED MODELS — More than 30 representatives led by Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) penned a letter to health officials calling for substantive changes to promote value-based Medicare payments. Value-based pricing has long been a popular approach among industry and advocates looking to manage costs for increasingly pricey treatments. DelBene, joined by Reps. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), Ami Bera (D-Calif.) and others, asked CMS to incentivize value-based models through the Medicare Shared Savings Program and support accountable care organizations entering the program. HOUSE DEMS PRESS FOR LONG COVID RESEARCH — Two dozen House lawmakers wrote to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urging the caucus leaders to include funds for long Covid- in future relief packages. “Congress must use every available tool to immediately respond to this crisis within a crisis,” Democrats led by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) wrote. While long Covid research is a popular initiative, it doesn’t have a clear vehicle to latch onto in the ongoing budget talks, particularly after the administration slashed its supplemental coronavirus funding request to $22.5 billion. But boosted long Covid research is also a key component of the White House’s pandemic exit plan.
| | | | DON’T MISS POLITICO’S INAUGURAL HEALTH CARE SUMMIT ON 3/31: Join POLITICO for a discussion with health care providers, policymakers, federal regulators, patient representatives, and industry leaders to better understand the latest policy and industry solutions in place as we enter year three of the pandemic. Panelists will discuss the latest proposals to overcome long-standing health care challenges in the U.S., such as expanding access to care, affordability, and prescription drug prices. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | A FIRST IN FLORIDA — Florida’s controversial surgeon general went out on another limb Monday, breaking with the CDC to say that Florida would become the first state to recommend against children 5 and older receiving a Covid-19 vaccine, POLITICO’s Arek Sarkissian writes. Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, an outspoken critic of pandemic-era safety measures, didn’t provide details on the proposed new policy. He made the announcement at a roundtable, joined by Gov. Ron DeSantis, Stanford University professor Jay Bhattacharya and biostatistician Martin Kulldorff. The latter two were the chief signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration, which calls for a hands-off approach toward managing the pandemic and advocates for natural herd immunity. The virus has killed about 71,000 people in Florida in the past two years. THE ROADBLOCK IN NEWSOM’S HEALTH PLAN — The California Medical Association has emerged as a powerful critic of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ongoing effort to set up an Office of Healthcare Affordability, which would establish health care cost targets and impose penalties on those that don’t meet them, POLITICO’s Victoria Colliver reports. Newsom has been trying to establish the agency to reduce Californians’ health care costs for the past two years. The agency’s supporters say to be effective it would need to collect data from all health care players — hospitals, doctors, health insurers, pharmaceutical companies. But the CMA contends that placing the same reporting burden on both small doctors’ groups or solo practitioners and large hospital systems isn’t fair and could end up costing consumers. ERIC ADAMS’ NEMESIS, CHOCOLATE MILK — New York’s first self-professed vegan mayor has chocolate milk cartons in his crosshairs. In January, Adams aired concerns about having “chocolate, high-sugar milk” in the nation’s largest school system. He’s not alone: San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have already banned the drink in schools. Los Angeles tried but then faced such a heated backlash it reversed the policy. Adams may soon be facing his own backlash if he tries to pull chocolate milk out for good — from the state’s dairy farmers and his dairy-loving constituents. Nearly 80 percent of New York City voters said in a recent poll they favored keeping low-fat, flavored milk in schools.
| | | Aileen Pangan joined Merck on March 1 as vice president and therapeutic head for immunology and global Clinical Development. Pangan most recently served as AbbVie’s executive medical director of immunology clinical development. Wendy Parker Sussman joins Johnson & Johnson as head of pharmaceuticals for U.S. federal affairs, serving as the primary liaison to PhRMA. She most recently was with EMD Serono as vice president and head of U.S. health care government and public affairs.
| | | NPR takes a deep dive into the thousands of federal inmates who tried to argue they weren’t safe in detention as Covid-19 spread across the nation. Israel recorded its first case of polio since 1989, The Times of Israel reports , raising concerns over a disease the nation largely eradicated decades ago. Recently unsealed documents in the ongoing baby powder case show Johnson & Johnson helped fund a study more than 50 years ago that injected asbestos into mostly Black Pennsylvania inmates, Bloomberg’s Jef Feeley reports.
| | | | A message from PhRMA: According to a new poll, voters overwhelmingly support policies that would lower out-of-pocket costs and bring greater transparency and accountability to the health insurance system.
We need to make the cost of medicine more predictable and affordable. Government price setting is the wrong way. The right way means covering more medicines from day one, making out-of-pocket costs more predictable and sharing negotiated savings with patients at the pharmacy counter.
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