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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 | Presented by |  | | | With Susannah Luthi and Rachel Roubein 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.
| | | — AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine could be critical to ending the pandemic, if health officials can get the public to trust it. — The Biden administration increasingly fears Johnson & Johnson will miss its goal of 20 million vaccine doses by the end of March. — The Biden administration is using the Affordable Care Act’s 11th anniversary to promote the law's past successes and Democrats’ future health agenda. WELCOME TO TUESDAY PULSE — and prepare yourself now: Just as people begin to reemerge from their homes, so too will the cicadas. A tip a day may not keep the bugs away, but it's still worth a shot: send them to acancryn@politico.com. | | | | A message from PhRMA: As we usher in a new Congress and new administration, we can all agree that people need quality, affordable health coverage that works when they need it. We are focused on solutions that help patients better afford their medicines and protect access to innovation today and in the future. | | | | | | ALL EYES ON ASTRAZENECA — The company behind the coronavirus vaccine long seen as the best shot to end the pandemic worldwide is struggling to overcome a series of missteps that have fueled official caution and dented public trust, POLITICO’s Sarah Owermohle reports. — First, AstraZeneca had to pause its trials due to a serious illness, resulting in a two-month delay in the U.S. Then it mistakenly gave thousands of people in its U.K. trial a half-dose of vaccine, only to find out that the immune response was stronger in those participants than in those who received the proper amount. — The latest cause for alarm came early Tuesday, via an NIH statement saying the independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board, the body charged with overseeing AstraZeneca's U.S. trial, was “concerned” that the company may have included outdated information in its initial vaccine efficacy figures. Such an oversight could have resulted in an "incomplete view of the efficacy data," the DSMB warned, adding that it has urged AstraZeneca to review those numbers. — Earlier on Monday, AstraZeneca had touted its vaccine as 79 percent effective at preventing symptomatic disease — and able to completely prevent Covid-related hospitalization and death. Those results could still clear the way for U.S. authorization in the coming days. But the Biden administration will need to work to overcome public wariness of the shot in the U.S., even though the country is sitting on 300 million doses. Concerns about the vaccine in Europe have also flared in recent days; 13 countries temporarily suspended use of the vaccine amid fears of shot-induced blood clots. Though those fears have so far not been substantiated, a Monday YouGov poll found more than half of respondents in France, Germany and Spain now believe the vaccine is unsafe. J&J DELAY — Johnson & Johnson may break its promise to deliver 20 million Covid vaccine doses by the end of the month, frustrating Biden officials who have lauded the single-dose vaccine as a turning point in the pandemic, POLITICO’s Erin Banco, Sarah Owermohle and Rachel Roubein report. The company has been grappling with a series of logistical hurdles, including a manufacturing process that requires components to first be sent from Europe to a U.S. facility before the vaccines are ready for the federal government. — That means J&J’s full tranche of shots might not ship until April, threatening to throw off states’ vaccination plans and further inflame tensions with the White House. The drugmaker’s previous struggles with production have already prompted a manufacturing deal with competitor Merck. — The White House bet heavily on J&J playing a central role in its vaccination campaign, alongside vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. Overall, the administration has managed to ramp up both production and vaccine distribution. But J&J’s vaccine will be critical to keeping up that pace, as states open up eligibility to all adults ahead of May 1.
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TODAY: BIDEN CELEBRATES 11 YEARS OF THE ACA — The administration is dispatching top officials across the country to mark the 11th anniversary of Obamacare’s passage and promote expansions to the health law codified as part of Democrats’ Covid aid package.
— XAVIER BECERRA’s first trip as HHS secretary is to Carson City, Nev., where he’ll visit the state’s first federal qualified health center to begin administering Covid vaccines. Becerra’s also set to hold a roundtable with Gov. Steve Sisolak focused on Obamacare’s benefits. While on the ground in Nevada, he’s also scheduled to be on a separate call with elected officials in Florida meant in part to make the case that the state should expand its Medicaid program. — Second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF will be in Nebraska touring a hospital and a vaccination site, where he’s expected to talk up the latest stimulus bill as a path out of the pandemic. — And BIDEN himself is headed to Ohio to promote Obamacare on a visit to a cancer center. It's the kind of victory lap that the pandemic precluded last year — and that Democrats view as even more critical now, as Biden tries to sell the public on his expansive agenda. As part of the messaging effort, former President Barack Obama appeared at a virtual event Monday, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are set to participate in a similar event today, both hosted by Protect Our Care, a group created to defend Obamacare during the Trump administration. | | | |   | | | | | | PHARMA PREPS FOR WAR OVER DEMOCRATS’ NEXT BILL — Democrats could push for trillions of dollars in their next stimulus package to help revive the economy — and they want to make the drug industry pay for it , POLITICO’s Susannah Luthi and Sarah Owermohle report. Demcoratic momentum on another huge bill has also renewed lawmakers’ enthusiasm for overhauling the drug pricing system in the process, a long-held priority that could also extract tens of billions of dollars from the industry. It’s a prospect that’s jolted the pharma lobby, which had survived the Trump era largely unscathed. — The most crucial part of Democrats’ drug pricing plan would allow the government to directly negotiate drug prices, a move favored by progressives like Senate Budget Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Yet even if that effort falls short, there are a host of more moderate proposals on the table — including a bipartisan Senate bill to curb drug price hikes in Medicare and cap out-of-pocket spending for seniors. — Pharma’s strategy: focus on vaccines. Industry lobbyists argue that the rapid development of Covid vaccines serves as a clear example of the need to preserve the status quo. | | | WYOMING OPENS THE DOOR TO MEDICAID EXPANSION — The GOP-controlled state House passed a bill to expand the safety net program late Monday, Rachel reports. It’s the first state to seriously consider building out its Obamacare program since the signing of Biden’s coronavirus relief bill, which included extra dollars for holdout states that choose to expand. — But the bill isn’t finished in the House. It still needs to pass on its second and third readings — which is generally when bills are amended — later this week, or else it will die. — It’s been a day of whiplash for Medicaid expansion in the state. A similar state Senate bill was defeated earlier in the day because it failed to reach the GOP-controlled chamber’s floor, according to The Casper Star-Tribune’s Morgan Hughes and Camille Erickson. But the Senate will still get to consider the House expansion bill, assuming it does make it out of the lower chamber. — Key quote: “I voted no multiple times on this issue,” House Speaker Eric Barlow, a Republican, said, according to The Casper Star-Tribune. “I’m going to vote yes this time, because I haven’t seen any other solution.” | | | | A message from PhRMA: Despite our divisions, there are many things on which Americans agree. The biopharmaceutical industry is committed to working with Congress and the new administration to:
• End the pandemic. The industry remains committed to getting COVID-19 treatments and vaccines to patients, and we are working closely with governments, insurers and others to make sure they are accessible and affordable.
• Make health care better and more affordable. People want quality, affordable health coverage that works when they need it. We support solutions that will help patients better afford their medicines and protect access to innovation today and in the future.
• Build a more just, equitable society. We must address systemic racism, as has been made clear by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others and the outsized impact of the pandemic on Black and Brown communities. We remain committed to this important issue on behalf of our communities, the patients we serve and our employees. | | | | | | ANNE DWYER has left the Senate Finance Committee after more than seven years as a staffer to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) — a tenure that included managing the committee Democrats’ Medicaid portfolio during Congress’ 2017 Obamacare repeal-and-replace fight and negotiating the most recent extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Liz Dervan, who handled drug pricing and Obamacare policies for the committee, is taking over Dwyer’s Medicaid portfolio. HHS Accountability Project adds former FDA official DAVID GORTLER. Gortler will be a fellow at this initiative scrutinizing the health department, which is run out of the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, and he’ll focus on FDA oversight and drug safety. He was previously a senior adviser to Trump FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn.
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| | | After nearly 350 columns and more than eight years, Merrill Goozner pens his last one for Modern Healthcare. D.C. officials are fretting over Covid vaccination trackers that show the District falling behind much of the nation, arguing the figures are unfairly skewed, The Washington Post’s Julie Zauzmer reports. The U.S. should play a lead role in quickly vaccinating as many people around the world as possible, Helene Gayle, Gordon LaForge and Anne-Marie Slaughter argue in Foreign Affairs.
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