Welcome to Monday’s Overnight Health Care, where it’s recess but there’s still a bunch of health care news.
We have a Title X update and new concerns over a carcinogen in Zantac, but we’ll start with the latest on drug pricing.
House Progressive circulates letter seeking changes to Pelosi drug pricing bill
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) is outlining changes he wants made to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s signature drug pricing bill.
Two of the big changes he wants:
- Increasing the minimum number of drugs eligible for negotiation up from 25, ideally allowing for negotiation on all drugs.
- Taking tougher steps to address high launch prices for new drugs coming onto the market.
Why it matters: Doggett’s could influence many other progressive House Democrats because he is the sponsor of an alternative bill to lower drug prices that has been endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
{mosads}”After reviewing her plan, I find much to merit support but some significant limitations that require improvement,” Doggett wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter to the 129 House Democrats who have co-sponsored his alternative drug pricing bill.
Title X update:
The Trump administration says it has reallocated $34 million in federal funds given up by Planned Parenthood and other providers that did not want to comply with new abortion restrictions on a federal family planning program.
The money will instead go to 50 grantees that decided to remain in the Title X family planning grant program, which funds birth control and other reproductive health services for millions of low-income women and men.
Planned Parenthood, and some states run by Democrats, including Illinois, New York, and Oregon, left the program this summer after the Trump administration began enforcing new rules that ban providers from referring women for abortions.
Critics say the changes are a “gag rule” that prevent providers from having honest discussions with their patients about abortion.
While Title X funds don’t cover abortion, the Trump administration argues federal funds should not support organizations that support abortion as a method of family planning.
Planned Parenthood, which is suing over the rules, had served more than 40 percent of Title X patients, and its departure left a large gap in the program.
The Department of Health and Human Services said Monday reallocating the money would help fill “service gaps left by the grantees that chose to leave the Title X program rather than comply with the law.”
The funding was awarded to grantees in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Pennsylvania, and other states.
But the reallocation of funding won’t have any impact on states that no longer have Title X providers, like Utah.
CVS halts sales of heartburn drug Zantac over cancer concerns
CVS is halting sales of the over-the-counter heartburn drug Zantac and its generic equivalent because of concerns they contain low levels of a cancer-causing chemical.
The drugstore chain said in a statement over the weekend that it is taking the step “out of an abundance of caution” due to a recent alert from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The FDA warned that Zantac, which contains ranitidine, could contain low levels of the carcinogen nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA).
CVS noted that the drug has not been recalled and “the FDA is not recommending that patients stop taking ranitidine at this time.”
“However, customers who purchased these products can return them to CVS for a refund,” it added.
Sanofi, the company that makes Zantac, said in a statement that the FDA has found the amounts of the carcinogen NDMA in its drug “barely exceed amounts found in common foods.”
“We are working closely with the FDA and are conducting our own robust investigations to ensure we continue to meet the highest quality safety and quality standards,” the company said.
What we’re reading
With the Affordable Care Act’s future in doubt, evidence grows that it has saved lives (The Washington Post)
Flu vaccine selections may be an ominous sign for this winter (Stat News)
Elizabeth Warren facing skepticism over ‘Medicare For All’ on campaign trail (The Washington Examiner)
State by state
Purdue Pharma family profits from sale of ski resorts in regions plagued by opioid addiction (Washington Post)
The Hill op-eds
We must treat the obesity epidemic like the public health crisis it is