Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
FDA Nominee Heads Before Senate Health Panel As Biotech Industry Watches For Hints
President Donald Trump’s nominee to take over the Food and Drug Administration is set to answer questions Thursday, with Senate lawmakers likely to focus on her plans for vaccines, the abortion pill and other products that have come under new scrutiny at the regulatory agency. Dr. Heidi Overton, a physician and top White House aide, has spent most of her career working for Trump or conservative groups aligned with his agenda. That connection may prompt questions from some members of the Senate health committee which is considering her nomination. (Perrone, 9/24)
President Trump's pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration, Heidi Overton, on Thursday will have to convince a handful of skeptical Republican senators to back her nomination. But the larger biotech world is watching for hints about how she'd lead the agency through a defining era for the sector. (Owens, 9/24)
More from the FDA —
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Wednesday endorsed Galleri, a blood test designed by the biotech firm Grail to screen for multiple types of cancer, concluding that the benefits of the test outweighed its risks. (Herper, 9/23)
Possibly contaminated injections of a peptide called glutathione have been linked to dozens of illnesses and some hospitalizations, the federal health agencies reported. (Sullivan, 9/23)
The FDA issued a warning letter this month to Empower Pharmacy over its mass production of compounded GLP-1 weight-loss and diabetes drugs, citing illegal copycat manufacturing and insanitary conditions. (Monaco, 9/23)
In other pharma and tech developments —
A man found dead in an Idaho church decades ago may be connected to unsolved poisonings in 1982 that were dubbed the Tylenol murders and ushered in child safety caps for medicines, authorities announced Wednesday. Detective Tim Cooper of the Ada County Sheriff’s Office reopened a cold case investigation in 2019 that led authorities to identify Dr. Mathew Francis Betkouski posthumously. He fatally poisoned himself with cyanide more than 40 years ago and was buried anonymously. (Sun and Roubein, 9/24)
Theranos founder and convicted felon Elizabeth Holmes has been approved for placement in a community correction center, or halfway house, and is scheduled to be placed there next year, according to an update from the Department of Justice's Victim Notification System, ABC News has learned. Holmes is scheduled to be placed in the Austin Transitional Center in Del Valle, Texas, on Aug. 23, 2027, according to the notification. (Dunn, 9/23)
