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The Trump administration has other legal avenues to impose tariffs on pharmaceuticals despite the Supreme Court decision striking down many of the administration’s current tariffs. In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled that President Donald Trump did not have the authority to impose tariffs under a 1977 law, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. But at a White House press conference, Trump said there were numerous other statutes and authorities that give the president the power to impose tariffs. He cited Sections 122 and 301 of the Trade Act of 1974; Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962; and Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, commonly referred to as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. He also announced that he would impose a broad tariff of 10% under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, effectively replacing tariffs he imposed under the international emergency law that the court struck down. (Wehrwein, 2/21)

Updates on the FDA —

The Trump administration has promised to reduce the barriers between health artificial intelligence developers and patients. With a provocative new proposal, an AI company has offered regulators a way to let a broad swath of potentially risky AI devices flood the market. (Aguilar and Palmer, 2/23)

Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly promised to root out industry influence from the Food and Drug Administration. But the Trump administration’s injection of political priorities into the agency, which has long been shielded from such meddling, has opened new avenues for lobbying. (Payne and Lawrence, 2/23)

In other pharmaceutical industry news —

Catalent is cutting more roles at its gene therapy manufacturing facility in Harmans, Maryland. This round of layoffs will affect 93 employees and will be effective on March 19, according to a Maryland Work Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filing. The state's WARN report also notes the CDMO's dismissal of three other employees in nearby Baltimore. (Dunleavy, 2/20)

Novo Nordisk’s next-generation weight loss drug CagriSema, one of the company’s key hopes to help it regain its footing in the increasingly competitive obesity market, failed in a key study that compared it to rival Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide, Novo said Monday. (Joseph, 2/23)

L’Oréal SA played a key role in the ouster last week of Sanofi SA Chief Executive Officer Paul Hudson and the choice of his successor, in what was a major corporate shakeup for the French pharmaceutical company. The push by the French cosmetics giant, Sanofi’s biggest shareholder, led to the naming of Merck KGaA CEO Belén Garijo to succeed Hudson, according to people familiar with the matter who didn’t want to be named citing confidential discussions. (Furlong, Rascouet, and Torsoli, 2/20)

The notion that oncologists could boost immunotherapy responses simply by giving infusions in the morning, rather than late afternoon, is an attractive one. So when a clinical trial published in Nature Medicine this month showed that lung cancer patients treated in the morning had a massive reduction in the risk of progression compared to those treated in the afternoon, many scientists were intrigued, if skeptical. Now that study is coming under fire, as multiple scientists and sleuths raise serious concerns about the data and point out inconsistencies in the trial. (Chen, 2/20)

The Trump administration said Friday it backs a 10-year deadline for most cities and towns to replace their harmful lead pipes, giving notice that it will support a tough rule approved under the Biden administration to reduce lead in drinking water. The Environmental Protection Agency told a federal appeals court in Washington that it would defend the strongest overhaul of lead-in-water standards in three decades against a court challenge by a utility industry association. (Phillis, 2/21)

U.S. President Donald Trump said he would deploy a hospital ship to Greenland, alleging that many people there are sick and not receiving care, even though both of the U.S. Navy’s hospital ships are currently docked at a shipyard in Alabama. Trump’s announcement prompted a defense on Sunday of Denmark and Greenland’s health care system from their leaders, and it was the latest point of friction with the American leader who has frequently talked about seizing the massive Arctic territory. “It’s a no thank you from here,” said Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen. (Keaten and Toropin, 2/22)

Public health experts and former federal staffers are uneasy over National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya’s rising influence over U.S. health policy as he temporarily takes on the added role of leading the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Trump administration announced the leadership shake-up this week, with former interim CDC Director Jim O’Neill being moved out of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). “Candidly, this is someone who very clearly has an ax to grind with science and the scientific community in general,” Kayla Hancock, director of Protect our Care’s Public Health Watch project, said of Bhattacharya. (Choi, 2/22)

In health news from Capitol Hill —

At least one Republican lawmaker is formally pushing back on President Trump’s effort to boost a controversial herbicide, glyphosate, that’s reviled by supporters of the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement. Trump this week stoked MAHA fury by issuing an executive order that seeks to “ensure an adequate supply” of glyphosate as a national security issue and grant “immunity” to makers of the pesticide under the Defense Production Act. In response, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) drafted legislation to prevent the order’s implementation. (Frazin, 2/20)

Congress has backed off plans to institute “site-neutral” Medicare payments for outpatient care for now, but a new law still represents a step toward curtailing billions of dollars in hospital reimbursements. The spending and healthcare package President Donald Trump enacted this month requires health systems to obtain unique National Provider Identifiers, or NPIs, for their outpatient departments by 2028. Although the policy does not modify Medicare payments, it will arm lawmakers and regulators with detailed information about outpatient care provided at hospital-owned facilities — and its cost — to support broader site-neutral policies. (McAuliff, 2/20)

Lawmakers will likely have a lot to say about health care this year. Paradoxically, they probably won’t accomplish much on the subject. (Wilkerson, 2/23)

On the immigration crisis —

Three months into President Donald Trump’s mass deportation undertaking, an ICE officer shot and killed a U.S. citizen in South Padre Island, long before immigration agents killed another American in Minnesota that prompted outrage across the nation, according to records released this week that were not previously disclosed by the government. (Serrano and Runnels, 2/20)

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials this week reported that the death of a 55-year-old Cuban man at a detention facility in El Paso was the result of the staff’s “spontaneous use of force” to “prevent him from harming himself.” Officials quietly updated the cause of death after previously declaring last month that the man died of “medical distress.” (Kriel and Deguzman, 2/20)

The Merrimack warehouse that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to turn into an immigrant detention facility sits within a contamination zone where residents have long faced issues with chemical pollution in their drinking water. (Hoplamazian and Dario, 2/20)

The head of a health care company that’s advertising jobs for nurses and other medical staff to work inside a proposed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Merrimack, N.H., said his business hasn’t decided whether to provide staffing for this or any other ICE facility. Ethan Bond, president of Aspen Medical USA, said his company posted “speculative” job listings online to test the labor market in New Hampshire and other markets where the US Department of Homeland Security is expected to have health care staffing needs. (Porter, 2/22)

In other news about the presidency —

Longtime friends and allies of Joe Biden say they are worried about the toll an aggressive form of prostate cancer is taking on the former president and his health. But Biden and his aides say he is doing well, making progress on ongoing projects and maintaining public appearances. (Abutaleb, 2/23)

The U.S. has officially logged 982 measles cases in 2026, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. It’s more than four times the number of cases as this time last year, when a large outbreak was just beginning in West Texas. Twenty-six states have reported cases so far this year. Large outbreaks continue to grow in Utah, Arizona and, most notably, South Carolina, where the virus has been spreading since the fall. As of Friday, the state had reported nearly 800 cases since January, bringing the outbreak’s total to 973. (Edwards, 2/21)

On the flu —

Five more children died of influenza in the United States last week, for a season total of 71, as viral activity stays high across much of the nation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today in its weekly FluView update. The 2024-25 flu season saw a total of 289 child deaths—the most reported in a non-pandemic flu season since the CDC began tracking pediatric flu deaths in 2004. (Van Beusekom, 2/20)

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spent years campaigning against vaccines, but with the flu shot, he’s suggested it’s personal. Kennedy has linked his strained, raspy speech to the vaccine, despite several medical experts saying there is no scientific evidence to support that claim. Federal guidance revised under Kennedy last month, while the United States is experiencing a hard-hitting flu season, no longer recommends routine flu vaccines for children and adolescents. The day after he assumed office a year ago, he ordered the end of a government ad campaign encouraging flu vaccination. (Weber, Sun and Gilbert, 2/21)

In related news on RFK Jr. and MAHA —

Year two of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s tenure as health secretary is already yielding some wins — but not for him and his Make America Healthy Again movement. Instead, the agriculture and pharmaceutical industries he’s long targeted are breathing a sigh of relief as the White House signals it’s reining in Kennedy’s attacks on their products and tasking him with touting healthy eating and President Donald Trump’s efforts to cut drug price deals. (Chu, 2/21)

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made it his Make America Healthy Again mission to challenge the medical establishment. President Donald Trump’s signature law, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, could entrench it. Kennedy sees America’s medical schools as bastions of groupthink that ignore the root causes of disease. But newly proposed caps on student loans that stem from the law would favor establishment institutions over nontraditional schools aligned with Kennedy’s view that Americans are sicker than ever because of what they eat, the chemicals they’re exposed to, and how little exercise they get. (Chu, 2/23)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: As More Americans Embrace Anxiety Treatment, MAHA Derides Medications
After a grueling year of chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation to treat breast cancer, Sadia Zapp was anxious — not the manageable hum that had long been part of her life, but something deeper, more distracting. “Every little ache, like my knee hurts,” she said, made her worry that “this is the end of the road for me.” So Zapp, a 40-year-old communications director in New York, became one of millions of Americans to start taking an anxiety medication in recent years. For her, it was the serotonin-boosting drug Lexapro. (Reese, 2/23)

On covid and the pandemic —

In late January, U.S. Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-NY, chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, inquired about the status of more than $1 billion that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had still not paid to New York health systems for COVID-19 expenses dating back to 2020. Garbarino told NOTUS he is “still working with” the agency to obtain the documentation he requested in January to investigate the situation. The money still hasn’t been disbursed. (Banks, 2/19)

Covid contrarians tight with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are pitching Hollywood on an unlikely leading man: National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya. Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy’s running mate in the 2024 presidential campaign, is searching for investors to fund a movie that pokes fun at the pandemic response with a star based on Bhattacharya, who rose to prominence with his anti-lockdown manifesto and relentless tweets opposing social distancing. (Hooper, 2/22)

Two studies examined the effects of COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy, with one estimating that full vaccination and a booster dose reduce the risk of preeclampsia (PE) by 15% and 33%, respectively, and the other finding no elevated risk of miscarriage before 20 weeks’ gestation among pregnant or soon-to-be-pregnant recipients of the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines. (Van Beusekom, 2/19)

People with HIV (PWH) had a significantly higher risk of developing long COVID across multiple organ systems than people without HIV (PWoH), according to a large cohort study published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. (Bergeson, 2/20)

A ransomware attack forced the University of Mississippi Medical Center to close all of its roughly three dozen clinics around the state and cancel elective procedures for a second day on Friday, hobbling one of the state’s largest health care providers. University officials warned that the shutdown could continue for days as they try to evaluate the extent of the attack, including whether patients’ sensitive information was compromised, and restore network systems they took down as a precaution. (Bates, 2/21)

OpenLoop Health, which provides telehealth services for digital health companies, is facing a possible class action lawsuit due to an alleged data breach exposing 1.6 million health records. The Des Moines, Iowa-based company is getting sued by two different people, who allege OpenLoop failed to secure their personally identifiable information and protected health information when it was breached by a ransomware group in January. (Famakinwa, 2/20)

More health care industry developments —

The U.S. Justice Department and the state of Ohio filed a lawsuit Friday against OhioHealth accusing the health system of anticompetitive behavior. The federal lawsuit alleges that Columbus-based OhioHealth’s practice of requiring commercial health insurers to include all of its providers in their networks inflates costs for policyholders and patients, hampers price transparency, and disadvantages regional rivals such as the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Mount Carmel Health System, which is part of Livonia, Michigan-based Trinity Health. (Hudson, 2/20)

4,200 holdout nurses who remained on the picket line announced Feb. 20 a tentative contract agreement with NewYork-Presbyterian, as well as its "overwhelmingly" affirmative ratification vote a day later. The accord comes after 41 days and was characterized as a victory by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA). (Muoio, 2/22)

Early lessons are emerging as the digital health sector’s ambient AI focus shifts from clinical documentation to prior authorization. Companies such as Abridge, Suki and Cohere Health say their solutions can do for prior authorization what ambient AI has done for documentation and clinician burnout. The importance of partnerships become an integral part of their efforts in this area. (Famakinwa, 2/20)

In the 1970s, the U.S. agency that provides health care to Native Americans sterilized thousands of women without their full and informed consent, depriving them of the opportunity to start or grow families. Decades later, the state of New Mexico is set to investigate that troubling history and its lasting harm. (Peters, 2/21)

More reproductive health news —

Ayanna Harris-Rashid was sitting up in bed, her newborn son latched to her breast, one hand scrolling on her phone, when the police called. She was wanted on a felony charge of child neglect. (Walter and Castellano, 2/21)

Two bills having to do with abortion are making their way through the Wyoming legislature. The first bill, HB0126, dubbed the Human Heartbeat Act, prohibits abortion if cardiac activity is detected in the fetus, which is around six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they're pregnant. If cardiac activity is detected, an abortion can only be performed in the case of a medical emergency, meaning if the life of the mother is in danger or if continuing the pregnancy would cause serious or irreversible impairment of a major bodily function, according to the bill, which does not include exceptions for women impregnated as a result of rape or incest. (Kekatos, 2/20)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: New Orleans Brings Back The House Call, Sending Nurses To Visit Newborns And Moms
When Lisa Bonfield gave birth to daughter Adele in late November, she was thrust into the new world of parenting, and faced an onslaught of challenges and skills to learn: breastfeeding, diapering, sleep routines, colic, crying, and all the little warning signs that something could be wrong with the baby. But unlike parents in most of the U.S., she had extra help that was once much more common: house calls. Adele was only a few weeks old when a registered nurse showed up at Bonfield’s door on Dec. 10 to check on them and offer hands-on help and advice. (Westwood, 2/23)

Other health news from across the U.S. —

Changes to SCAN health plan offerings affect many who were forced to leave Scripps in 2023 when the provider pulled its main medical groups out of the Medicare Advantage program. (Sisson, 2/22)

In a growing number of states, terminally ill patients now have a legal option that would have been unthinkable to many Americans a generation ago: a doctor’s prescription that allows them to end their own life. (McGowan, 2/22)

On paper, little appears to have changed for UMass Chan Medical School over the past year, despite the cascade of paused and terminated grants and swift, unpredictable policy shifts that followed President Trump’s return to office. The amount of bread-and-butter RO1 awards it received from the National Institutes of Health in the 2025 fiscal year dropped only 1.6% from 2024. (Oza, 2/20)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: State Lawmakers Seek Restraints On Wage Garnishment For Medical Debt
Lawmakers in at least eight states this year are aiming to reel in wage garnishment for unpaid medical bills. The legislation introduced in Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, and Washington builds on efforts made in other states in past years. This latest push for patient protections comes as the Trump administration has backed away from federal debt protections, health care has become more costly, and more people are expected to go without medical coverage or choose cheaper but riskier high-deductible insurance plans that could lead them into debt. (Bichell, 2/20)

Scientists who study chronic pain have long puzzled over a particular type of scenario: A man and woman get into a car accident and sustain the same injuries. But the woman experiences long-lasting pain, while the man recovers more quickly. Historically, some doctors have dismissed these differences as women exaggerating their pain or being unable to tolerate the same discomfort as men. But studies have repeatedly found that women are more likely to experience chronic pain in general and that their pain lasts longer, on average. (Bendix, 2/20)

More health and wellness news —

Some research suggests that avoiding environmental exposures, especially pre-conception, may help. Influencers branded the idea “trimester zero,” but the science is in early stages. (Cha, 2/23)

Women’s bodies are different from men’s in ways that medicine is still learning. Meanwhile, their risk of serious cardiovascular events can be underestimated if their distinct risk profiles are blurred with men’s. The latest example of important sex differences centers on the plaque burden in coronary arteries — a measure of fat and cholesterol deposits that also accounts for blood vessel size. (Cooney, 2/23)

Even after recalls of inclined sleepers in 2019, sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUIDs) still occurred with use of these products, researchers found. From 2009 to 2023, there were 158 SUIDs in inclined sleepers, with 68% occurring from 2009 to 2019 and 32% after 2019, reported Sasha Mintz, MPH, and Abigael Collier, DrPH, both of the National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention at the Michigan Public Health Institute in Okemos, in Pediatrics. (Henderson, 2/23)

Some surveys find that about 75% of U.S. adults have used supplements, while federal survey data shows that 58% used one in the past 30 days — but some groups should exercise caution, experts say. There are many different supplements — including vitamins, minerals, herbs, amino acids and probiotics — designed to fill nutrient gaps and support overall wellness. Some target specific functions, such as immune support, muscle recovery and bone health, according to multiple medical sources. (Rudy, 2/22)

A Portland, Oregon, company is recalling nearly 3.4 million pounds of frozen chicken fried rice products sold at Trader Joe’s stores and in Canada because they may contain pieces of glass, U.S. Agriculture Department officials reported. Ajinomoto Foods North America Inc. pulled Trader Joe’s Chicken Fried Rice from stores nationwide. The frozen product — containing fried rice, vegetables, chicken meat and eggs — is sold in 20-ounce plastic bags. The affected packages have best-by dates of Sept. 8 through Nov. 17, 2026. The products are stamped with the establishment number P-18356 inside the USDA mark of inspection. (2/20)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: �鶹Ů�� Health News’ ‘On Air’: Journalists Explain Colorectal Cancer Risk And Federal Pullback On Georgia Disability Oversight
Céline Gounder, �鶹Ů�� Health News’ editor-at-large for public health, discussed on CBS News 24/7’s The Daily Report on Feb. 16 how the recent deaths of two actors sparked searches for colorectal cancer information. (2/21)

On social media and mental health —

Social media addiction has been compared to casinos, opioids and cigarettes. While there’s some debate among experts about the line between overuse and addiction, and whether social media can cause the latter, there is no doubt that many people feel like they can’t escape the pull of Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and other platforms. ... Much of the concern around social media addiction has focused on children. But adults are also susceptible to using social media so much that it starts affecting their day-to-day lives. (Ortutay and Huamani, 2/21)

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI said Friday it considered last year alerting Canadian police about the activities of a person who months later committed one of the worst school shootings in the country’s history. OpenAI said last June the company identified the account of Jesse Van Rootselaar via abuse detection efforts for “furtherance of violent activities.” The San Francisco tech company said it considered whether to refer the account the Royal Canadian Mounted Police but determined at the time that the account activity did not meet a threshold for referral to law enforcement. OpenAI banned the account in June 2025 for violating its usage policy. (Gillies, 2/21)

From payment distortions to certificate-of-need laws, government rules often reward consolidation and block new entrants. Reforming them would spur competition and lower costs. (Ashish K. Jha and Thomas C. Tsai, 2/23)

The ripple effects of cutting H.I.V. research funding. (Jeneen Interlandi, 2/23)

As an ICU nurse, I’ve seen organ donation rules hurt families. Here’s a workaround. (Etan Yeshua, 2/22)

Exhaustion is a real risk for EMTs and other emergency medical service clinicians. A Pittsburgh EMT explores a solution. (P. Daniel Patterson, 2/22)

It’s not about turf. It’s not about hierarchy. It’s not about pet peeves or ego. It’s about taking care of patients. (Lois Snyder Sulmasy, 2/23)