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The National Institutes of Health鈥檚 long-held standard of peer review for grantmaking has been subverted by President Donald Trump and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, who gave unprecedented power to politicos, NIH workers say.
Xlear, a maker of xylitol gum, has sued the Federal Trade Commission, saying the onus should be on government to prove that ingredients don鈥檛 live up to advertised claims. RFK Jr.鈥檚 鈥渕edical freedom鈥 allies have rallied to the cause.
After spearheading a 34% cut in cancer mortality, the National Cancer Institute at the NIH is bleeding resources and staff and could see its budget cut by nearly 40%.
A new vaccine advisory panel appointed by the HHS secretary, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, reflected his unsupported claims about the safety of childhood inoculations.
Vaccines are under fire from the top of the Trump administration. Federal programs to monitor them and make them safer have always been underfunded.
Worried that President Donald Trump鈥檚 FDA might not act, a panel of cancer experts recommended that doctors consider testing before dosing patients with a commonly used but sometimes deadly cancer drug. It came too late for many patients.
While Big Pharma seems ready to weather the tariff storm, independent pharmacists and makers of generic drugs 鈥 which account for 90% of U.S. prescriptions 鈥 see trouble ahead for patients.
Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.鈥檚 HHS said an enormous, noncompetitive flu vaccine development grant to two favored NIH leaders would ensure 鈥渢ransparency, effectiveness, and comprehensive preparedness.鈥 But their vaccine is in early stages, relies on old technology, and is just one of scores of similar efforts.
Attitudes about a debunked link between measles vaccines and autism haven鈥檛 budged that much. But there鈥檚 a sharp partisan divide over whether the vaccine is safe.
Recent cuts eliminated a small, specialized workforce that sets the poverty standards determining who is eligible for Medicaid as well as assistance with food, home heating, child care, and more.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has helped improve health care safety in a country where thousands die of medical errors each year. It was effectively dissolved Tuesday.
Two senior scientists say National Institutes of Health officials advised them to remove references to mRNA vaccines in grant applications, and they fear the Trump administration will abandon a promising field of medical research.
Should Marty Makary take the reins at the FDA, transitioning from gadfly to the head of an agency that regulates a fifth of the U.S. economy, he would have to engage in the thorny challenges of governing.
The FDA is already limited in policing claims of health benefits by makers of supplements and herbal remedies 鈥 a $70 billion industry. Get ready for even less regulation.
Jay Bhattacharya, nominated to lead the National Institutes of Health, opposed most covid mandates. Without an honest public debate about what worked and what didn鈥檛, public health experts say, we鈥檙e even less prepared for the next pandemic.
Two Senate committees are expected to question Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on how his disproven views of science and medicine qualify him to run the $1.7 trillion, 80,000-employee federal health system.
As criticism of pharmacy benefit managers heats up, fear of lawsuits is driving some big employers to drop the 鈥淏ig Three鈥 PBMs 鈥 or force them to change.
Inoculation campaigns that protect children and adults from dangerous diseases rely on a delicate web of state and federal laws and programs. If senior officials cast doubt on vaccine safety, the whole system might collapse, especially in red states.
As federal health scientists await a potential takeover by RFK Jr. and other medical skeptics in the second Trump administration, some are preparing r茅sum茅s or retirement papers.
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