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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 Sarah Owermohle and Adam Cancryn | Presented by |  | | | 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 | | | — The CDC is in upheaval amid top staff departures and a restructuring by Director Rochelle Walensky. — The Supreme Court is taking up Mississippi’s abortion ban, which could force a reticent President Joe Biden to wade into the issue. — The House Oversight Committee will question the CEO of pharmaceutical giant AbbVie today amid a probe into pharmaceutical pricing practices. WELCOME TO TUESDAY PULSE — Do you remember the last big public health crisis, vaping? A book on Juul’s rise is incoming. Send tips (not vapes) to sowermohle@politico.com and Adam at acancryn@politico.com. | | | | A message from PhRMA: Americans don’t need another barrier to their medicines. We have to lower what patients pay for their medicines. We also have to make sure they are getting the medicines they need. H.R.3 forces a choice between one or the other, but there’s a way to do both. Get the facts at phrma.org/betterway. | | | | | | WALENSKY SHAKES THINGS UP — The CDC Director is consolidating her agency amid mounting criticism of the federal government’s often confusing coronavirus recommendations, Erin Banco and Adam report. Among her changes: There’s now a clearer chain of command from the new director of the agency’s vaccine task force — which helped rewrite rules for mask-wearing — up to Walensky, according to three senior health officials with knowledge of the situation. Walensky has also reshuffled the CDC’s pandemic modeling and data, analytics and visualization task forces. And meanwhile: The CDC is weathering its first high-level departures during the pandemic. Nancy Messonnier, the agency’s chief respiratory disease scientist and leader of its vaccine task force, announced her resignation shortly after Walensky rejiggered the task force’s reporting structure. And on Monday, the CDC’s second-in-command, principal deputy director Anne Schuchat, said she would retire this summer. These changes will all serve to solidify the CDC director’s power and reinforce the agency’s independence from the White House at a key moment in coronavirus policy. For instance, Walensky did not inform key White House officials — including President Joe Biden — of the CDC’s mask policy reversal until hours before the announcement Thursday. The reshuffle was “a long time coming,” said a senior Biden health official. “There have been some hiccups over the last few months that have created some tensions within the agency.” BIDEN CAN’T ESCAPE ABORTION FIGHT — The Supreme Court’s decision Monday to reconsider the right to an abortion could complicate Biden’s health policy strategy ahead of the midterms, Alice Miranda Ollstein writes. Biden largely stayed quiet on the issue as a presidential candidate, while Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and other Democratic contenders put forward sweeping abortion rights platforms. He conceded when pressed, however, that the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide should be written into federal law and the longtime ban on federal funding for abortion should be abolished. Pressed Monday about how the administration will respond to the high court’s decision to take up Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the administration is “committed to codifying” Roe but declined to say how. In the meantime, progressive members of Congress and outside groups say they have been struck by Biden’s silence on the issue: Since taking office, he hasn’t mentioned abortion in any speeches, videos or social media posts. Now, they’re calling on Biden to speak up — and lay out how he will safeguard abortion access, as it is steadily curtailed by red-state restrictions. HOUSE PANEL SETS SIGHTS BACK ON DRUG PRICES — House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) is picking up where her late predecessor, Chair Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), left off, questioning AbbVie CEO Richard Gonzalez over the drugmaker’s pricing practices for two of its moneymakers, including the autoimmune medicine Humira. Why it matters: Humira has been the world’s best-selling prescription drug for years, with the cost rising 470 percent since its 2003 approval. While the FDA has approved multiple biosimilars — generic versions of the high-cost infusion — no competitor has launched a direct rival because Humira is patent-protected until 2023.
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| | | FIRST IN PULSE: DEMOCRATS PUSH HHS TO REWRITE TITLE X AS WINDOW CLOSES — The 30-day public comment period for the Biden administration’s rewrite of the rules for the Title X family planning program closed Monday, drawing heightened scrutiny from both progressives and conservatives, Alice reports. As HHS kicks of a monthslong process of reversing Trump’s ban on federal funding for clinics that provide abortions or abortion referrals, a group of 42 Democratic senators, led by HELP Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.), wrote to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra urging him to release a final rule as soon as possible. The letter, shared first with Pulse, details the impact of Trump’s Title X rule, which prompted a mass exodus of providers from the program, leaving several states with no family planning services at all. “We believe the proposed rule restores the focus of the program to providing confidential, evidence-based care from trusted health care providers,” the senators wrote. The Biden administration's final Title X rule is expected this fall. U.S. WILL SEND 20M MORE VACCINES OVERSEAS — Psaki said Monday that the Biden administration will send an additional 20 million coronavirus vaccines to countries in need, following Biden’s decision last month to send 60 million AstraZeneca doses to governments around the world. The additional 20 million doses will come from the U.S. supply of Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson shots, and the total of 80 million doses will be sent out by the end of June, Psaki said. Left unanswered: Where are those shots headed? Two senior administration officials said Monday that an interagency group working on the matter is still finalizing which countries will receive the first batches, Erin writes. The Biden administration has received more than four dozen requests for vaccine donations from countries across the world. | | | |   | | | | | | CALIFORNIA, NEW JERSEY DELAY LIFTING MASK RULES — California will not relax its statewide mask rules until after June 15, the target date for the state to fully reopen businesses , state health officials said Monday. “This four-week week period will give Californians time to prepare for this change while we continue the relentless focus on delivering vaccines,” state Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly said. And in Jersey: Gov. Phil Murphy is refusing to lift the state’s indoor mask mandate, putting him at odds with federal recommendations announced last week, POLITICO New Jersey’s Sam Sutton reports. “I don’t want to get burned. I don’t want to go back. We're the only state in America that has not gone back once and I don’t want to start now,” Murphy said during a press briefing. “I can’t speak for our neighbors, they’ve been great partners, but on this one we feel quite strongly.” Speaking of the neighbors: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont will suspend mask mandates for vaccinated residents on Wednesday, the same day indoor capacity restrictions across the tri-state region are scheduled to be lifted. Pennsylvania has already shifted its guidance to match the CDC’s. Even Delaware, a frequent punching bag of New Jersey’s official Twitter account, plans to lift both indoor and outdoor mask mandates later this week, Sam writes. | | | Anna Abram joined Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld as a senior adviser in its public law and policy practice. Abram was most recently deputy FDA commissioner for policy, legislation and international affairs and is a Senate HELP alum. | | | | A message from PhRMA: Americans don’t need yet another barrier to their medicines. Especially now. Now is the time for us to rethink how we get the medicines we need. But there are right ways and wrong ways. While it may sound good on paper, H.R.3 would threaten patients’ access to treatments, put nearly a million American jobs at risk and jeopardize current and future medical innovation – all while failing to address the broader challenges facing America’s health care system.
We have to lower what patients pay for their medicines. We also have to make sure patients are getting the medicines they need. There’s a way to do both, but H.R.3 isn’t it. Get the facts at phrma.org/betterway. | | | | | | Public health expert Ashish Jha has become a ubiquitous presence on television and in pandemic-era reporting, in part because of his plain-spoken way of explaining complex health concepts, Stat News’ Damian Garde writes. Life after Covid-19 infection has dealt Brian Beutler a series of long-term health challenges and mysteries, raising questions about what’s next for millions of coronavirus survivors, as he writes in Crooked Media. Biden’s vaccine-sharing commitments will only make a small dent in global demand, write the Washington Post’s Tyler Pager and Dan Diamond. | | | | SUBSCRIBE TO "THE RECAST" TODAY: Power is shifting in Washington and in communities across the country. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that 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 in 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. | | | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
