|
Presented by Facebook: Delivered daily by 10 a.m., Pulse examines the latest news in health care politics and policy. | | | | | |  | | By Sarah Owermohle and Adam Cancryn | Presented by Facebook | 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. With Alice Miranda Ollstein and Joanne Kenen | | | — Democrats are preparing to battle on drug prices, as the White House hesitates to put major health reforms in the next big spending bill. — The world is searching for reliable coronavirus vaccines, and Maryland’s own Novavax might be the next answer, if it can scale from tiny biotech startup to global pharmaceutical giant. — Drug criminalization disproportionately harms Black Americans and other people of color, the National Institute of Health’s top addiction specialist argues. WELCOME TO TUESDAY PULSE — Your authors are overjoyed about this emoji update and ready to use it for all the vaccine tips you send us. Send those to sowermohle@politico.com and Adam at acancryn@politico.com. | | A message from Facebook: How Facebook is supporting the COVID-19 vaccination effort
Facebook is running the largest worldwide campaign promoting authoritative COVID-19 vaccine information.
The background: We’re helping people learn when and where they can get vaccinated, giving free ad credits to governments and NGOs and expanding efforts to remove false vaccine claims. | | | | | | DEMOCRATS BRACE FOR DRUG PRICING FIGHT — The Biden administration has yet to pick a fight with the drug industry, despite calls from his party to include reforms in the next coronavirus relief package. If he abandons those calls — which advocates say could save billions — that’ll put pressure on progressives and moderates in swing states who want to deliver on years of campaign pledges to tackle high drug costs — and worry their Democratic majority is in jeopardy if they don’t, write Alice Miranda Ollstein and Susannah Luthi. “Seniors have watched all this campaigning, and Donald Trump by being all bluster and accomplishing essentially nothing has, if anything, heightened the need to really deliver,” Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told POLITICO. “This is what elderly voters are going to be looking at in the fall of 2022.” Wyden and other Democrats are anxious for the White House to include drug price negotiation in the yet-to-be-unveiled American Families Plan — or to move their own drug pricing bill without Biden’s help. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s sweeping drug negotiation plan — which progressives pressed to be included in the House version of the masisve bill now in the works — is likely a nonstarter in a stalemated Senate. “The political situation now, with a razor-thin majority in the House and a 50-50 Senate, means that the effort to get the votes will be very, very tough,” Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) told reporters on a call on Monday, adding that many Democrats are loath to take on the pharmaceutical industry. “We’ve got to take seriously how hard this is.” U.S. PREPARES TO SHARE ASTRAZENECA VACCINE STASH — The Biden administration is readying up to 60 million AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines doses to be distributed worldwide, according to two senior administration officials. The president is slated to speak on the Covid-19 response this afternoon, when he could share details on the effort to provide vaccines to countries in need — especially after reporters’ questions in briefings this past week about any planned assistance for India, which has been slammed with Covid cases. AstraZeneca has produced about 10 million doses of its vaccine for the U.S. but the FDA has not yet authorized that shot for use, Erin Banco and Adam report. The agency is still examining the doses to ensure they meet quality control standards, and one senior official said an additional 50 million doses are still in production. The new effort to ship doses comes on the heels of Biden’s announcement that the administration will soon send raw materials and components to India to help that country’s massive vaccine manufacturing plants produce a low-cost version of AstraZeneca’s shot known as Covishield.
| | | | JOIN AN IMPORTANT CONVERSATION, SUBSCRIBE TO "THE RECAST": Power is shifting in Washington and across the country. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that all politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. “The Recast” is a twice-weekly newsletter that explores the changing power dynamics in Washington and breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics and policy across America. Get fresh insights, scoops and dispatches on this crucial intersection from across the country and hear critical new voices that challenge business as usual. Don't miss out, SUBSCRIBE . Thank you to our sponsor, Intel. | | | | |
THE BEST COVID SHOT YOU HAVEN’T HEARD OF — Hopes are growing that a dark-horse coronavirus vaccine from a tiny U.S. drugmaker can shore up supplies in the U.S. and globally as safety concerns and production problems hamper Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca’s vaccine rollouts.
Maryland-based Novavax is an unlikely star. The company has never brought a product to market before. Its shot entered late-stage clinical trials months after other coronavirus vaccine makers. But its vaccine proved just as potent in trials, and the company is now preparing to file for U.S. authorization in a matter of weeks — potentially leapfrogging AstraZeneca, a former frontrunner. And it’s still ironing out issues. The company has enlisted production partners worldwide after struggling to scrape together the tens of thousands of doses needed for its clinical trials. Now, it’s aiming to pump out 150 million doses a month by the second half of the year through agreements with factories like India’s Serum Institute, which will chip in more than one billion shots. Most of them will go to COVAX, the global vaccine equity effort that aims to supply the world’s poorest countries. “Our problem is that we were a little company with a great technology,” Gregory Glenn, the company’s president of research and development, told POLITICO. “In the past year we’ve had to build a company which includes having that manufacturing in our own house.” | | | TRUMP SNUBS HARRISON FOR CONGRESS — Former President Donald Trump on Monday endorsed Susan Wright in a special election for a vacant Texas House seat, opting to back the late Rep. Ron Wright’s wife over Brian Harrison, a Trumpian stalwart who served as chief of staff for Trump’s Health and Human Services Department. It isn’t the first hit to Harrison’s campaign, but it’s definitely the worst. Other former Trump aides like Roger Severino, an HHS official who pushed for more stringent abortion policies, endorsed Harrison’s opponents in recent weeks, Adam reported. Harrison, a first-time candidate, has campaigned on the idea that he was integral to some of the president’s biggest health initiatives, from fast-tracking Covid-19 vaccine development to rolling back funding for clinics that provide abortions. “President Trump repeatedly thanked Brian for his successes in delivering important reforms that made America stronger,” Harrison’s campaign website reads. Thanked, but didn’t endorse. | | | |   | | | | | | TOP NIH OFFICIAL: DRUG LAWS WORSEN OUTCOMES FOR MINORITIES — In a Health Affairs blog post published this morning , Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, fleshed out her concerns about the way that racially disparate enforcement of drug laws can hurt minority populations. “Although statistics vary by drug type, overall, White and Black people do not significantly differ in their use of drugs, yet the legal consequences they face are often very different,” Volkow wrote. Volkow, who has helmed NIDA for nearly two decades, has been vocal for several years about counteracting drug addiction through public health rather than criminal justice measures. She also spoke out after George Floyd’s murder last year about the harms of systemic racism. HEALTH AND SOCIAL POLICY IN A DIVIDED AMERICA — There is a Democrat in the White House, a closely divided Congress and a conservative Supreme Court — a difficult landscape for getting things done in Washington, as panelists hosted by POLITICO and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health observed last week. The consensus was that Biden can achieve some goals through reconciliation or executive orders, but there will be very little cross-party collaboration, Joanne Kenen writes. The “level of animosity… is just staggering,” the Kennedy School’s David King said, referring to Congress. Many major policies on health, racial justice, voting rights and abortion will ultimately end up in the Supreme Court, where crucial decisions will depend on whether moderate Chief Justice John Roberts can coax Brett Kavanaugh or Neil Gorsuch to the left.
| | | | CHECK OUT FDA TODAY: Daily regulatory developments, sent directly to your inbox. AgencyIQ's daily newsletter, FDA Today, provides readers with actionable and insightful explanations of the latest FDA developments impacting the life sciences industry. Sign up for free today. | | | | |
| | | Retired Adm. John Polowczyk is a managing director at EY, focusing on supply chains, POLITICO Playbook first reported. He most recently led the Trump’s administration’s Supply Chain Stabilization Task Force for Covid-19. Tich Changamire is CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield’s new chief medical officer. Changamire began his career as a medical officer in Zimbabwe before studying public health and eventually working as chief medical officer for Humana in Louisiana. Leslie McGorman joins the American Academy of HIV Medicine as its director of public policy. McGorman lobbied for years with NARAL Pro-Choice America. | | A message from Facebook: Get timely, reliable information about COVID-19 and vaccines
Visit the COVID-19 Information Center to learn more about:
· When and where you can get the COVID-19 vaccine
· Real-time updates from national health authorities and global organizations
· Tips and resources to stop community spread and support emotional health | | | | | | The Navajo Nation has vaccinated nearly 88 percent of its eligible population, far outpacing the U.S. national rates for Covid-19 immunization months after it suffered devastating infection rates, NPR’s Rachel Treisman writes. The World Health Organization expects a decision on whether to authorize use of two Chinese Covid-19 vaccines within two weeks, Reuters reports that a top official said on Monday. Some European countries are devising plans to let Americans back in this summer, but there could be a patchwork of rules and travel limits in the near future, writes Wall Street Journal’s Eric Sylvers, Apostolis Fotiadis and Sam Schechner. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
