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To Republicans, President Donald Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary is competence personified — an able manager who can get the agency back on track after the tumult of Tom Price’s brief tenure and forced resignation. To Democrats, Alex Azar is a pharmaceutical industry shill who knows a lot more about raising drug prices than lowering them. (Cancryn, 11/29)

Skeptical Democratic senators are getting a chance to question President Donald Trump’s pick for health secretary about what he’ll do about rising drug prices and the future of “Obamacare.” Alex Azar’s first confirmation hearing — before the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee — was scheduled for Wednesday. The former drug company and government executive has the support of committee Republicans. He’s signaling that he wants to shift away from partisanship, and some prominent Democrats seem to be willing to give him a chance. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Kellman, 11/29)

Alex Azar on Wednesday will make his first public appearance since being nominated by President Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the agency tasked with managing ObamaCare. Democrats on the Senate Health Committee are certain to bombard Azar with questions about how he plans to implement ObamaCare, his tenure as a pharmaceutical executive and how he’d lower the rising price of prescription drugs. (Roubein, 11/29)

When Alexander M. Azar appears before a Senate panel Wednesday, the nominee for Health and Human Services secretary will likely face numerous questions about how a former executive of a company that more than doubled the price of a critical diabetes treatment can be President Donald Trump's point man for addressing high drug prices. Azar led U.S. operations for Eli Lilly and Co., the Indiana-based company behind products like Humalog, an insulin that increased in price from $100 in 2010 to $250 in 2016. (Siddons, 11/28)