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The White House on Thursday launched its drug-pricing website, dubbed TrumpRx, the culmination of efforts by the administration to bring down pharmaceutical costs for some consumers. When it launched, it had roughly 40 drugs available, including obesity treatments Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and infertility treatments such as Gonal-F from EMD Serono. (Essley Whyte, Calfas and Loftus, 2/5)

President Trump on Thursday night announced the launch of TrumpRx, the website that he and his aides have touted for months as a platform aimed at lowering prescription drug prices. (Chen, Wilkerson and Cirruzzo, 2/6)

The Health and Human Services Department has agreed to scrap a contentious 340B Drug Pricing Program rebate model and go back to the drawing board. HHS and the American Hospital Association, in a joint court filing Thursday, asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine to vacate litigation over HHS’ 340B rebate pilot program and send the pilot back to HHS. (Early, 2/5)

As the popularity of weight loss drugs has increased, so have calls to poison control as people, including children, overdose on the medications. GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Zepbound are designed to be injected, typically once a week. That means the medications are set to remain in the body for that long, which can have devastating consequences if a child gets their hands on the medicine. The case of Jessa Milender, reported by local Indiana news outlet WTHR, is one example. The then-7-year-old girl took her mother’s GLP-1 injection, which she thought was a drug for stomach aches. (Whiteside, 2/5)

Telehealth company Hims & Hers said Thursday it will launch a cheaper, off-brand version of the weight-loss pill Wegovy, just weeks after drugmaker Novo Nordisk launched its highly anticipated reformulation of the blockbuster medication. The announcement from Hims is the latest example of the company’s efforts to capitalize on the booming popularity of GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy, which have revolutionized weight loss treatment in the U.S. ... Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy is the first of the medications to become available in a pill format. (Perrone, 2/5)

A telehealth company that generated buzz last year with a defiant Super Bowl ad hawking weight-loss drugs is back for this year’s championship with a socially charged pitch around longevity. “Rich people live longer,” intones the artist Common, as the spot for Hims & Hers advises that you, too, can get access to the same “custom-formulated peptides,” hormone therapy and other wellness products as the wealthy. (Gilbert, 2/6)

Far fewer people who could benefit from statins actually take the cholesterol-lowering drugs now. Many who start taking them stop. The long list of side effects, detailed in fine print on package inserts and discussed in exam rooms over the years, pose barriers to many patients, doctors say. A new meta-analysis hopes to set the record straight on one of the most widely used, low-cost doses of cardiovascular disease prevention available. (Cooney, 2/5)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Effective But Underprescribed: HIV Prevention Meds Aren’t Reaching Enough People

Billing mistakes. Stigma. Doctors who aren’t keeping up with the latest research. Those are just some of the hurdles that keep HIV prevention medication out of reach for many Americans. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates more than 2 million Americans could benefit from a treatment known as PrEP, but only a quarter of them are getting a form of the drug. Zach Dyer appeared on WAMU’s “Health Hub” on Feb. 4 to share tips patients can use to avoid those pitfalls and find a doctor who knows more about PrEP. (Dyer, 2/6)

Abbott Laboratories said it still aims to launch its dual glucose-ketone sensor this year while addressing newly disclosed issues federal regulators have with its FreeStyle Libre continuous glucose monitors. In October, Abbott received a warning letter from the Food and Drug Administration related to an inspection at its diabetes care site in Alameda, California. The agency said Abbott did not transfer performance specifications to third-party manufacturers and ensure ongoing monitoring of products while being made or once finished. (Dubinsky, 2/5)

The Trump administration is rescinding a total of $1.5 billion in health and transportation funds from multiple blue states, a spokesperson for the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) confirmed Thursday. The OMB directed the Transportation Department to rescind $943 million from Colorado, Illinois, California and Minnesota, and it directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to rescind $602 million from those states. (Frazin, 2/5)

The Trump administration finalized a new policy on Thursday that would strip job protections from up to 50,000 federal workers, a move that would make it easier for President Trump to remove or discipline them, in his latest effort to dismantle the federal work force. Until now, the roughly 4,000 people appointed by the president, known as political appointees, were the only federal workers who could be fired at will. The policy issued on Thursday allows the administration to expand that number to include career employees whom the administration considers to also have policy-related roles. For these employees, any whistle-blower complaints would now be handled inside their agencies rather than by the independent Office of Special Counsel, as they had previously. (Sullivan, 2/5)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: �鶹Ů�� Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: HHS Gets Funding, But How Will Trump Spend It?

The Department of Health and Human Services is funded for the rest of the fiscal year. But lawmakers remain concerned about whether the Trump administration will spend the money as directed. Meanwhile, negotiations over extending expanded subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans have broken down in the Senate, mostly over a perennial issue — abortion. The subsidies’ expiration at the end of 2025 has left millions of Americans unable to afford their health insurance premiums. (Rovner, 2/5)

A bipartisan working group convened by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has released a new report identifying critical policy actions that would strengthen US defenses against biological threats. The report, Protecting Americans from Biological Threats, was developed by the CSIS Bipartisan Alliance for Global Health Security Working Group on Biodefense over the course of four months and is endorsed by more than 40 experts spanning public health, national security, biotechnology, and government. (Bergeson, 2/5)

Scientists studying the artificial intelligence capabilities for assisting in the development of biological and chemical weapons may inadvertently violate security laws. (Kristopaityte, 2/4)

The U.S. Army is looking to have autonomous airborne drones and ground robots clean up chemical and biological weapons. The Autonomous Decontamination System, or ADS, would scrub vehicles, critical infrastructure and key terrain. Equally important, it would allow troops in the field to protect themselves and thus ease the strain on Army chemical warfare units that might not be available when needed. (Peck, 2/3)

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asserted on Wednesday that the keto diet could cure schizophrenia — an unfounded claim that experts say vastly overstates preliminary research into whether the high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet might help patients with the disorder. Mr. Kennedy made the remarks while traveling in Tennessee as part of his national tour to urge Americans to “eat real food” — a message he is delivering in conjunction with his recent overhaul of federal dietary guidelines, which now emphasize protein and fats, including steak, cheese, butter and whole milk, over carbohydrates. (Stolberg, 2/5)

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday announced the Food and Drug Administration was relaxing its enforcement of federal food additive regulations, making it easier for manufacturers to claim that they are not using artificial dyes in their products. The F.D.A. has barred food makers from advertising that products contain “no artificial colors” unless they have no added dyes of any kind. But Mr. Kennedy and F.D.A. officials announced that the agency would no longer enforce that rule, so long as companies were not using petroleum-based dyes. (Gay Stolberg, 2/5)

So you’re a bear in the forest, and you’re hungry. When you trundle toward a raspberry bush and get your first taste of ripe, sweet fruit, dopamine floods your brain, pleasure as a form of instruction: More of this. Faithful to your body’s signals, you’ll be back to these same bushes throughout the summer, and every summer after that. The dopamine hits that a tasty meal provides help animals — people included — survive. (Todd, 2/6)

Government watchdog Public Citizen on Thursday issued a report outlining the major conflicts of interest held by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his allies in the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement. In particular, the report focuses on Kennedy and three key allies: Wellness influencer Dr. Casey Means, who is President Donald Trump’s nominee to be US surgeon general; her brother Calley Means, a senior adviser to Kennedy at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); and the siblings’ business partner Dr. Mark Hyman. (Reed, 2/5)

Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. admitted that he has not been able to convince President Donald Trump to personally embrace his Make America Healthy Again agenda by eschewing products like soda and fast food — which his administration is now warning Americans against consuming. Kennedy, 72, spoke at the Tennessee Capitol on Feb. 4 during a stop on his "Take Back Your Health" tour. Trump is known to be an avid consumer of Diet Coke and McDonalds fast food, reportedly drinking as many as 12 cans of Diet Coke per day. (Jones, 2/4)

The political climate where people live may matter as much as what they believe politically when it comes to COVID-19 vaccination, according to a study published this week in PLOS One. Researchers from Colgate University and Syracuse University found that politically conservative US adults living in liberal areas were both less hesitant about COVID vaccines and more likely to receive booster doses than conservatives living in conservative regions of the country. (Bergeson, 2/5)

A large UK study shows nearly two thirds of people initially skeptical about COVID vaccination eventually chose to get vaccinated. (Eppinger, 1/29)

For the first time since Texas criminalized abortion, the state’s medical regulator is instructing doctors on when they can legally terminate a pregnancy to protect the life of the patient — guidance physicians have long sought as women died and doctors feared imprisonment for intervening. The new training from the Texas Medical Board comes nearly five years after the state passed its strict abortion ban in 2021, threatening doctors with severe penalties. (Jaramillo, Surana and Presser, 2/5)

Why doctors who led the pandemic response in their states are running for office. (Merica, 2/6)

The family of a special needs student in St. Tammany Parish has filed a federal lawsuit against the parish school board and the school district’s superintendent, Frank Jabbia, saying that the district inappropriately shortened the child’s school days to two hours, depriving him of more than two-thirds of instructional time during the 2024-2025 school year compared to other students. The lawsuit alleges that the decision prevented the child — who for months spent his shortened school days in a specialty classroom isolated from other students — from access to equal education, violating longstanding federal special education laws. (Syed, 2/5)

Laura Marcelino and her husband were out for a walk in late November with five of their children at Toro Park, a hillside hiking spot near their home in Salinas, when they stumbled upon some mushrooms with yellowish caps. Thinking they recognized them as an edible variation from their native Mexico, they gathered a handful to bring home. (Bauman, Ho, and Hernandez, 2/5)

Jurors have awarded $8.3 million to the family of a Kansas foster teen who died in 2021 after he was held facedown for 39 minutes in a juvenile intake center while in the throes of a mental health crisis. Five juvenile officers in Sedgwick County either used excessive force on Cedric “C.J.” Lofton or failed to intervene, the jurors decided Wednesday after a trial in federal court in Wichita. (Hollingsworth, 2/5)

Like an estimated three million Americans, Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of the NBC News anchor Savannah Guthrie, has a pacemaker implanted in her chest. Law enforcement officials who are investigating her kidnapping are reported to have contacted the company that made Ms. Guthrie’s device to find out what they can learn from the information it yields. Experts in heart health and digital forensics say the answer may be “not much.” (Kolata, 2/5)

A Long Island school district is warning parents their kids may have been exposed to tuberculosis after learning that "an individual in the school community" was being treated for the highly contagious and possibly fatal disease. The Patchogue-Medford School District said in a letter to some parents in January that the Suffolk County Department of Health first alerted them about the infectious person. (Prussin, 2/5)

Millions of birds, including 1.3 million commercial table egg layers in Weld County, Colorado, have been sickened with highly pathogenic avian influenza, per this week’s notifications from the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS). In addition to the major outbreak in Colorado, 722,000 birds on a commercial table egg layer farm facility in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, were also sickened. (Soucheray, 2/5)

Influenza A(H5N1) viral RNA was widely present in US retail milk during the spring 2024–25 outbreak among dairy cattle, according to a report published late last week in Emerging Infectious Diseases. In milk samples collected from April 13 to May 3, 2024, researchers detected influenza A viral RNA in 36% of samples from 13 states, including in five states (Arkansas, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, and Oklahoma) that had no reported outbreaks at the time. Across the country, only 29 infected herds had been reported as of April 12, a total that was inconsistent with the number of positive samples. (Bergeson, 2/5)

A person with a confirmed case of measles visited an urgent care center in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, last month, health officials said. The Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services and Office of Public Health said Thursday that the infected person was at the Patient First Primary and Urgent Care on Collegeville Road on Thursday, Jan. 29. Officials said anyone at the center from 1:15 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. on that date could have been exposed to measles and should monitor themselves for symptoms for the next 21 days. (Simon, 2/5)

The Mexican state of Jalisco on Thursday issued a health alert and mandated the use of face masks in schools as a measles outbreak hit the state capital, a key host city for the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup. The measures come on the heels of an epidemiological alert issued by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) earlier this week over the spread of the preventable disease across the Americas, particularly in Mexico, which leads the region with 1,981 cases confirmed by authorities this year and more than 5,200 suspected cases. (Llano and Pesce, 2/6)

The federal government's Health & Human Services (HHS) is pushing to investigate Johns Hopkins Hospital and its Health System. On Tuesday evening HHS General Counsel, Mike Stuart, said he referred Hopkins to the Office of Inspector General for allegedly "continuing to perform heinous and horrific acts of intentional permanent harm to minors," which he says includes "sex-mutilating and sex-rejecting procedures." (Dickstein, 2/4)

Inside the stilled courtroom, an attorney asked a simple question and the mother on the witness stand began to cry. Where is your daughter right now? The question came during a hearing this week in Denver District Court in a lawsuit over Children’s Hospital Colorado’s suspension of gender-affirming care for transgender youth, a decision Children’s made in the face of escalating threats from the federal government. (Ingold, 2/6)

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is investigating Baltimore's Health Department (BCHD) over allegations that it holds racially segregated trainings, according to a letter to city officials on Wednesday. The investigation aims to determine if the department is violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by engaging in discriminatory employment practices. The measure prevents employers from discriminating against employees or applicants based on race, religion or sex. (Lockman, 2/5)

There were protests and arrests on Day 25 of the New York City nurses strike, but also progress in negotiations on some of the key issues that remain. Nurses rallied Thursday on Manhattan's West Side and outside The Mount Sinai Hospital on the Upper East Side, saying the New York State Nurses Association has more to do at the bargaining table, though they are closer to a deal. (Williams, 2/5)

The nation’s largest healthcare educator is changing its name, marking another chapter in its years-long transformation from a for-profit jack-of-all-trades school once mired in controversy to a multi-university network putting doctors, nurses and veterinarians into the U.S. workplace. Adtalem Global Education has become Covista, the Chicago-based education company said this morning, with a plan to expand its healthcare career network and establish itself as a major player in the nation’s health workforce infrastructure. (Asplund, 2/5)

A Houston doctor has been indicted on charges of falsifying medical records for five patients, making them ineligible to receive a liver transplant, federal prosecutors announced on Thursday. Dr. John Stevenson Bynon Jr. was indicted by a grand jury in Houston last month on five counts of false statements relating to health care matters. Bynon is accused of making false statements in his role as director of abdominal organ transplantation and surgical director for liver transplantation at Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston. (Lozano, 2/6)

Surgeons at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago were able to keep a critically ill patient alive for 48 hours after removing both of his lungs, the hospital reported last week. The patient, a 33-year-old Missouri resident whose name was not shared, was originally flown to Northwestern Memorial Hospital with lung failure linked to a flu infection in spring 2023. (Rudy, 2/5)

Apple Inc. is scaling back plans for a virtual health coach, according to people with knowledge of the matter, part of an effort to rethink how the company approaches the burgeoning market for wellness services. The initiative, code-named Mulberry, was wound down in recent weeks, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the move wasn’t public. Apple now plans to take some of the features it had planned for the artificial intelligence-powered offering and roll them out individually over time within its Health app. (Gurman, 2/5)

Congress has approved legislation for a funding fix that fully supports the World Trade Center Health Program and prevents a projected multibillion-dollar shortfall that threatened the program’s future. At a press conference Thursday morning, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., highlighted the action as a critical step toward protecting long-term care for those sickened by toxic exposure after the Sept. 11 attacks. "Fully funding the World Trade Center Health Program honors our promise to never forget 9/11 survivors and the brave first responders who put their lives on the line for our country," Gillibrand said. (Neporent, 2/5)

Bipartisan Senate talks aimed at reining in President Trump’s immigration crackdown appeared to sputter on Thursday before they had even started, raising the risk of a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security in a little over a week. Senators left Washington for the weekend without opening serious talks on a measure needed to keep the department running past a Feb. 13 midnight deadline, with Democrats demanding major changes to immigration enforcement operations and Republicans digging in against measures to curb the Trump administration’s deportation drive. (Gold, 2/5)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: With ICE Using Medicaid Data, Hospitals And States Are In A Bind Over Warning Immigrant Patients

The Trump administration’s move to give deportation officials access to Medicaid data is putting hospitals and states in a bind as they weigh whether to alert immigrant patients that their personal information, including home addresses, could be used in efforts to remove them from the country. Warning patients could deter them from signing up for a program called Emergency Medicaid, through which the government reimburses hospitals for the cost of emergency treatment for immigrants who are ineligible for standard Medicaid coverage. (Galewitz and Seitz, 2/6)

In 2025, as immigrant arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement soared, so did the demand for health care providers to staff hastily constructed detention centers. One group tapped to meet the need is the U.S. Public Health Service, or USPHS: In the past year, nearly 400 officers have done monthlong tours helping to provide basic medical care to detainees at ICE facilities nationwide, according to a USPHS employee who reviewed a roster of staff deployments. (Landman, 2/5)

Children detained by ICE in Minneapolis and taken to Texas spotted a classmate in the cafeteria of the detention center. (Wu, 2/5)

Raighn Hudson’s two-and-a-half year old son is too young to understand the boiling tensions in Minnesota over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. But as a member of the Tsimshian Eagle Clan from Ketchikan, Alaska, the 25-year-old Hudson said he worries he and his family could be targeted by federal agents. (Yang, 2/5)

Period products like pads and tampons are considered an essential public health need, but access for women and trans people held in federal custody — from prisons to immigration detention centers — remains inconsistent. While specific figures for women held in immigration detention have not been reported for President Donald Trump’s second term, the detention population broadly reached record highs in 2025, growing from about 40,000 to nearly 70,000 people. (Norwood, 2/5)

Many allege injuries or property damaged during the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Experts say suing the government will be tough. (Brittain, Klemko and Sacchetti, 2/6)

Italy is making its artistic treasures more accessible to people with disabilities. Michela Marcato, who has been blind since birth, recently toured Rome's Colosseum, using touch to understand its architecture. (Tarantino and Medichini, 2/4)

In the realm of extreme activities, one would be hard-pressed to find a bigger adrenaline rush than skydiving. However, for a group of veterans in Utah, jumping out of planes thousands of feet in the air provides a few moments of healing and a constructive way to deal with the stress of everyday life. (Damask, 2/2)

What if there was a way, biomechanical engineer Katie Weimer wondered, to 3D print bio-friendly breast tissue material that could restore dignity to survivors after a lumpectomy? (Drash, 2/2)

Scientists are studying Juan López García, 82, a world-record-holding ultramarathoner, to learn how we can stay healthy as we age. (Reynolds, 2/4)

“The readouts you will see in the next 12 months will potentially bring a treatment to patients who are suffering from these very, very severe diseases,” said Cristian Massacesi, Bristol’s chief medical officer. “We believe this is a turning point for our pipeline.” (Garde, 2/2)

The N.F.L. claims Guardian Caps reduce the risk of concussions. The company that makes them says, “It has nothing to do with concussions.” (Belson, 2/3)

The patients were old — more than 2,200 years old. But the medical experts were determined to give them a cutting-edge 21st-century exam. (Nunn, 2/3)

Researchers have developed a model to explain the science of near-death experiences. Others have challenged it. (Johnson, 2/5)

From the time she was a child, Milissa Kaufman felt as if she had a gang of kids in her mind, each with their own thoughts and opinions. One was a girl who was curious and wanted to learn. Another was calm, wise and confident enough to speak in class. Though she was only a few years older than the rest, Kaufman thought of her as the nice lady. Then there was the angry boy who was tough and unafraid. And at the far back of her mind existed a very young girl. All alone behind a door and in a box, she cried and screamed. The curious girl, the nice lady and the angry boy avoided her, frightened by the pain and the secrets she held. (Jones, 1/30)

In 1987, Zurich was a hotbed of radical feminism. For three Swiss francs (close to $6 today), left-wing bookstores sold a copy of a pamphlet called “Antisexistische Schrittversuche fuer die Aufloesung Maennlicher Machtstrukturen” (“anti-sexist attempts to dismantle male power structures”), featuring an article about “hodenbaden” sterilization — that is, testicular bathing. (Merelli, 2/2)

As physicians, we are often told to stay in our lanes and not to comment on polarizing issues. Many physicians default to deference and avoid honest communication, as outspokenness in our rigid system may have professional consequences. But I recall my psychiatry attending from my third-year of medical school telling me how he views physicians not only as healers, but also as models of ethical behavior. From an ethics standpoint, we have a responsibility to reckon with the egregious injustice that is the Epstein affair. (Chloe Nazra Lee, MD, MPH, 2/5)

As the political and financial scandals emerge, politicians have called for a “victim-centered” approach. But as people react with shock to the revelations in the files, it’s clear that the voices and experiences of the victims are still being ignored. (Lindsey Blumell, 2/5)

Evidence-based medicine and policy require a rigorous, unbiased analysis of evidence with insights from personal experience, human relationships, and an understanding of human behavior. (Former FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf, 2/6)

Our health care crisis is not the result of too little spending or too little regulation. It is the predictable outcome of a system that routes trillions of dollars through government and corporate intermediaries while deliberately excluding patients from price, choice and control. The most important relationship in health care is between patients and their doctors. Bureaucrats disrupt that relationship. Here are some pointers to limit their overreach in 2026. (Terry Wilcox and Anthony DiGiorgio, 2/5)

Four years ago, I moved from Denmark to join Pediatric Partners of the Southwest in Durango, Colo. Having served as a hospitalist in a large Danish facility and now as a pediatrician in the United States, I have a unique vantage point on two very different systems. While there are many “shining lights” in Danish health care, the country’s approach to immunization is not one of them. (Michael Thwing, 2/6)