Top of the morning to you, and a fine one it is. After a bleak, wintry stretch, a warm sun and blue skies are enveloping the Pharmalot campus, where our short person is sleeping in and the official mascots are dozing in their respective corners. As for us, we are engaged in the usual rituals — firing up the coffee kettle in order to brew a cup of stimulation (the choice today is cinnamon churro) and foraging for items of interest. On that note, here are a few tidbits to help you get started on your journey today, which we hope will be meaningful and productive. Meanwhile, do keep in touch — we enjoy secret dossiers and saucy tips. …
Three U.S. senators are calling on U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. to disclose what he and President Trump discussed with drugmakers during closed-door conversations, Bloomberg News says. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, and Bernie Sanders sent a letter dated March 10 to Kennedy, who is a longtime critic of the pharmaceutical industry. They accused him of attending “unofficial, million-dollar dinners” with industry executives at Mar-a-Lago. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America led a delegation of executives to the White House last month to ask Trump for changes to a Biden-era law that allows the government to negotiate certain drug prices. Executives, including the leaders of Pfizer and Eli Lilly, have said they attended private dinners at Trump’s Florida resort, with Kennedy present for some of them.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration told staff that reviewers of medical products and inspectors of manufacturing facilities cannot take a buyout offer circulated on Friday from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that would have provided as much as $25,000 in severance, Endpoints News reports. The carveouts for staff funded by industry user fee dollars show the extent to which the FDA and HHS are not targeting drug and device reviewers in the Trump administration’s wider government staffing cuts. The move could help ensure that all ongoing drug and device review timelines remain on schedule. The agency email noted that “ineligible positions” for the HHS buyouts include: “Inspectors and investigators in the Office of Inspection and Investigations including positions within the Office of Criminal Investigation; Reviewers in CDER, CBER, CDRH, CVM, CTP and OC offices; physical security positions; cybersecurity positions; and all PHS Commissioned Corps Officers.”
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