PELOSI's DRUG PLAN STALLED BY CENTRIST DEMOCRATS — At least 10 Democrats are signaling opposition to the House’s sweeping drug price negotiation bill, Alice Miranda Ollstein and Susannah Luthi report. That’s more than enough votes to force Pelosi to drop her reforms from a relief package that leadership hope to pass along party lines. In a letter to Pelosi obtained by POLITICO, the group called for more modest, bipartisan drug pricing reforms that would “preserve our invaluable innovation ecosystem.” Eight of those 10 House Democrats voted for the bill last Congress. California Rep. Scott Peters, who hails from a biotech-heavy district in San Diego and led the letter, said he voted for Pelosi’s bill knowing it had no chance of becoming law at the time. Now, he and other moderates want to stick to more incremental alternatives, like capping Medicare enrollees’ out-of-pocket drug costs, that have garnered some Republican support. Several of those House Democrats have been targeted by a recent $4 million campaign against Pelosi’s drug bill. On Tuesday, the conservative group behind it said it plans to spend another $1 million on the effort. The divide could provide drugmakers’ their escape from a bill considered by the industry as a worst-case scenario. Though the drug negotiation measure always faced long odds in the Senate on its own, House leadership hoped that passing H.R. 3 would give Democrats leverage to keep pressure on the industry when the Senate takes up the next Covid relief package. Pelosi spokesperson Henry Connelly pointed to polling that shows Americans across party lines want lower drug prices and argued that the bill would “protect genuine innovation into new cures” while curbing the industry from “charging Americans outrageous prices on medicines that were discovered a decade ago.” FIRST IN PULSE: DEMOCRAT-ALIGNED GROUP LAUNCHES DRUG PRICING PUSH — Just as Pelosi begins to face resistance within her caucus, the health care advocacy group Protect Our Care will debut a national TV and digital ad campaign calling for the passage of drug price legislation like H.R. 3 (117). The seven-figure ad buy specifically advocates allowing Medicare to negotiate the cost of medicines — a measure that’s at the center of Pelosi’s drug bill. TODAY: THE NEXT TEST FOR BIDEN’s CMS PICK — The Senate will hold a procedural vote today on advancing Chiquita Brooks-LaSure’s nomination to head the massive Medicare and Medicaid agency, which oversees health care coverage for roughly 150 million people, POLITICO’s Rachel Roubein reports. The Senate Finance Committee failed to advance Brooks-LaSure last month, , in the face of unified GOP opposition. Republicans on the panel at the time were protesting the administration’s decision to revoke a Trump-era extension of Texas’ Medicaid waiver. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer moved Tuesday night to bypass that opposition by discharging Brooks-LaSure’s nomination, setting up a full Senate vote at noon today that, if successful, would bring her one step closer to confirmation. An Obama administration veteran who would be vital to executing Biden’s health agenda, Brooks-LaSure’s nomination has now been in limbo for nearly three months. — ICYMI: The Senate confirmed Andrea Palm as HHS deputy secretary. As its No. 2 official, Palm will manage the department’s daily operations. She also served in the Obama administration and was most recently Wisconsin’s top health official. TONIGHT: HEALTH OFFICIALS MAKE PRIME-TIME VACCINE APPEAL — Three top Biden health officials are headlining a town hall aimed at promoting the administration’s pandemic response and combating vaccine hesitancy. The event, featuring HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci, will follow a taped one-on-one MSNBC interview with Biden focused on the vaccination campaign. — Biden will also give a separate speech this afternoon on the administration’s vaccine strategy. And Becerra will testify this morning in front of the Energy and Commerce Committee, where he’ll defend the White House’s budget proposal. | 
