Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
NIH Alters System To Monitor Research Funds Sent To Foreign Scientists
Starting early next year, scientists hoping to secure funding from the National Institutes of Health to pursue projects involving research partners overseas will encounter a new system for awarding and tracking those grants. Agency officials say the changes will improve the integrity, accountability, and national security of NIH-funded research. “It’s something that had been a long time coming,” Jon Lorsch, the NIH acting deputy director for extramural research, told STAT in an interview. “It was clear that we did not have good data at all for where the money was going or how it was being spent.” (Molteni, 9/18)
Dr. Mehmet Oz, who runs one of President Donald Trump’s most consequential health offices, came to Atlanta on Wednesday and told a conference ballroom full of health executives and workers that he sees a world full of promise under recent Trump health initiatives. And he’s hiring. (Hart, 9/17)
On artificial dyes, infertility, and drug abuse —
Federal regulators are proposing to remove another artificial dye from the U.S. food supply — Orange B, a synthetic color that hasn’t been used in the U.S. for decades. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that it would seek to repeal the regulation allowing use of the dye approved in 1966 to color sausage casings and frankfurters. No batches of the dye have been certified, or asked to be used, since 1978, FDA officials said. (Aleccia, 9/17)
Two professional organizations with different approaches to treating infertility, one backed by supporters of the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement and anti-abortion groups, and the other representing in vitro fertilization providers, held separate, dueling events on Capitol Hill this week after months of escalating tension. The briefings pitted in vitro fertilization ... against restorative reproductive medicine, a lesser-known approach to infertility that encompasses medication, lifestyle changes, tracking menstrual cycles or performing surgery for conditions that can decrease fertility, such as endometriosis. (Bendix, 9/17)
The sight is increasingly common: people openly using drugs, menacing pedestrians, strewing sidewalks and parks with needles, syringes and resin-crusted patches of foil. President Trump recently proposed a solution. He wants to force them off the streets and into treatment. The concept is not as unlikely as it might seem. (Hoffman, 9/17)
On pharma investments and tariffs—
British Big Pharma GSK is welcoming President Donald Trump to the U.K. with a hefty gift: a five-year, $30 billion planned investment in U.S. R&D and manufacturing. ... The planned American venture includes $1.2 billion earmarked for advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence and digital technologies, according to the release. That means beginning construction next year on a new biologics "flex" factory in Upper Merion, Pennsylvania, and expanding AI capabilities at the company's five manufacturing sites in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Maryland and Montana. (Incorvaia, 9/16)
On climate change —
A panel of experts convened by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine said the evidence that greenhouse gases harm human health is “beyond scientific dispute” — a conclusion that could impede the Trump administration as it seeks to roll back the federal government’s authority to regulate climate pollution. (Roston, 9/17)
