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Top drug regulator Richard Pazdur has filed papers to retire from the Food and Drug Administration at the end of this month, adding to the turmoil atop the agency. Pazdur informed leaders at the FDA’s drug center of his intention to leave the agency at a meeting on Tuesday, according to two agency sources familiar with the matter. The move comes less than a month after he took the role of top drug regulator at the urging of FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. (Lawrence, 12/2)

On SNAP benefits —

The Trump administration indicated Tuesday that it will begin withholding SNAP benefits from recipients in most Democratic-led states starting next week after those states refused to provide the Agriculture Department with data including recipients’ names and immigration statuses. (Coronell Uribe, 12/2)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Even As SNAP Resumes, New Work Rules Threaten Access For Years To Come
Alejandro Santillan-Garcia is worried he’s going to lose the aid that helps him buy food. The 20-year-old Austin resident qualified for federal food benefits last year because he aged out of the Texas foster care system, which he entered as an infant. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — commonly referred to as food stamps, or SNAP — helps feed 42 million low-income people in the United States. Now, because of changes included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, to keep his food benefits Santillan-Garcia might soon have to prove to officials that he’s working. (Rayasam, Houghton and Liss, 12/3)

More Trump administration news —

On the eve of a major expansion, a multibillion-dollar project to upgrade the computer systems of all Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals is beset with problems, according to some medical staff who already use it. Critical patient notes disappear. Prescriptions log the wrong dosages. One nurse said the system incorrectly listed one of her patients as dead. Mike Faught, a case manager at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington, said he lost access to his patients’ records for two days after a software update in August. “It’s amazing to me that there are still so many problems,” Faught said. “Every time there’s an update, there are unintended consequences.” (Butler and Smith, 12/3)

The Trump administration is backing Monsanto in its effort to get the Supreme Court to shield it from liability over cancer claims related to its Roundup weedkiller, a move that could anger the Trump administration’s allies in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. The Trump administration filed a brief with the Supreme Court arguing that lawsuits alleging that Monsanto failed to warn consumers of the health impacts of its Roundup weedkiller are preempted by federal law. (Frazin, 12/2)

Lobbyists for some of the world’s largest drug companies are parading a new pricing deal in the U.K. as a model the rest of Europe should emulate if it wants to keep drugmakers from bailing for America. ... The move comes as major drugmakers like AstraZeneca and Merck scrap projects in the U.K., and the Trump administration uses tariff threats to get pharma to raise prices on Europeans in order to cut them for Americans. (Chu, 12/2)

Nayra Guzmán knew there was something wrong with her daughter within hours of her birth — a long and complicated delivery that included a diagnosis of preeclampsia and ended in a Cesarean section. In the haze of recovery, the first-time mom noticed her daughter was struggling to breathe. When the baby started turning blue, Guzmán watched as doctors whisked her away to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). (Barclay and Luthra, 12/2)

Also —

Singer-songwriter Madonna issued a Monday rebuke to the Trump administration for refusing to recognize Dec. 1 as World AIDS Day in recognition of the virus’s impact. (Fields, 12/2)

In Geneva, WHO officials are engaged in an urgent struggle to save what they can, a process involving unquantifiable—and perhaps unimaginable—tradeoffs. Should the agency gut its budget for responding to emergencies like Ebola, or pull back on its work setting technical standards for drugs? Should it lay off scientists, or scale back the help it gives countries to manage the effects of climate change, such as worsening heat waves? It’s likely the answer will be to slash all of the above, with potentially disastrous consequences for public health around the world. There’s almost certainly no substitute for the WHO, or an organization like it. (Furlong and Gale, 12/1)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Listen To The Latest '�鶹Ů�� Health News Minute'
Nov. 27: Katheryn Houghton reads the week’s news: The Trump administration is making it easier for health care companies to merge, which can push patients’ bills up, and air pollution from fuel exhaust and wildfire smoke can contribute to cognitive decline. (12/2)