After three weeks of brutal combat, Richard Pazdur decided that he has had enough.
Pediatric cancer patients are living longer than ever before, according to the AACR Inaugural Pediatric Cancer Progress Report, published on Dec. 4. The five-year survival rate for all pediatric cancers has increased from 63% in the mid-1970s to 87% in 2015-2021.
Vinay Prasad, FDA’s chief medical and scientific officer and director of the agency’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, has instructed his staff to check with him before continuing to work on ongoing submissions to journals or beginning new contract-funded projects to “ensure that we are not engaging in sunk cost fallacy, not publishing obviously erroneous work, and not being distracted from our core mission.”
FDA issued a draft guidance on Dec. 2, outlining specific product types for which the FDA believes six-month non-human primate toxicity testing can be eliminated or reduced.
Ralph Lee Abraham, a Louisiana surgeon general who implemented controversial policies and held views that have drawn significant criticism from public health experts, has quietly been installed as the second-highest official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it has negotiated down the price of 15 drugs, including significant discounts to four costly cancer treatment drugs, according to an announcement from Nov. 25.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced that monthly premiums for Medicare Part B will begin costing patients $202.09 per month next year—a 9.7% rise up from $185 in 2025—for individuals making an annual income of $109,000 or less.
The American Hospital Association, joined by four community-based hospitals, has sued HHS over a pilot program to reimburse drug costs to safety net hospitals enrolled in the 340B program through a rebate—a departure of the status quo of up-front discounts.
The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” includes new restrictions on federal student loan borrowing that the Trump administration says are aimed at driving down the cost of graduate education. However, critics of the change say that the reduced access to low-interest federal loans will further reduce the accessibility of graduate and professional degrees.
Paradigm Health and Flatiron Health announced that Paradigm Health will acquire Flatiron’s Clinical Research Business, which has built a tech-enabled U.S. oncology research network.
