Up at white oak
Baby steps toward baby tests
Researchers should consider testing cell and gene therapies in younger children, including babies, an FDA official said Friday.
Nicole Verdun, director of the FDA’s Office of Therapeutic Products, said parents of children with rare diseases that affect them from birth want access to potential treatments at younger ages, my colleague John Wilkerson reports from an Alliance on a Stronger FDA event. Also, earlier treatment might benefit patients, Verdun said.
“We are looking to ways where we can enroll pediatric patients earlier in the development process,” she said. “And I think that people will really appreciate that.”
the campaign trail
Progressive group spends big to promote Medicare drug price negotiation
A progressive nonprofit group is spending more than $5 million on ads to do what the Biden administration has failed at: promoting Medicare drug price negotiation to voters.
The group, Protect Our Care, will run television, streaming and digital ads to help the re-election campaigns of nine Democrats: Yadira Caraveo (Colo.), Hillary Scholten (Mich.), Susan Wild (Penn.), Matt Cartwright (Penn), Susie Lee (Nev.), Steven Horsford (Nev), Pat Ryan (N.Y.), Frank Pallone (N.J.), and Gabe Vasquez (N. Mex).
The ads connect those lawmakers to a Democratic-passed law that directs Medicare to negotiate drugs, and caps monthly insulin costs and annual retail drug costs for seniors, John writes. Polls show that most people are unaware of the law, despite large majorities of voters in both parties supporting its policies. The Biden administration has started to aggressively tout the law. In the State of the Union, Biden attacked “Big Pharma” and promised to expand the law.
