Login
Big Pharma Has a Trump Problem
President Donald Trump’s clamp-down on federal science funding has handed Big Pharma an existential headache: the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has terminated more than 2,100 research grants and contracts, according to NIH scientists, totaling around $12 billion in early-stage studies that drugmakers often rely on to seed the next generation of therapies.
In an open letter sent June 9 to NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and key lawmakers, 92 NIH scientists warned the sweeping cuts could shutter campus labs, hollow out the biotech talent pipeline, and push jobs and billions in investment overseas.
White House spokesman Kush Desai defended the administration’s approach to federal research, telling the Associated Press that Trump is focused on restoring a “Gold Standard” of science, not “ideological activism.” Newsweek has contacted the White House, NIH, and HHS via email for comment.
States Agree to $7.4 Billion Settlement With Purdue Pharma in Opioid Litigation
All 50 states as well as Washington, D.C., and four U.S. territories have agreed to sign a $7.4 billion settlement with the company and once-prominent family behind OxyContin, officials announced Monday. The settlement resolves pending litigation against Purdue Pharma, which, under the leadership of the Sackler families, invented, manufactured and aggressively marketed opioid products for decades, according to the lawsuits.
States and cities across the country said it fueled waves of addiction and overdose deaths. The attorneys general in 55 states and territories have signed on to the historic settlement, which they said will end the Sacklers’ ownership of Purdue and bar them from making, selling or marketing opioids in the U.S.
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia led the team that negotiated the settlement, which marks the largest of its kind involving the opioid crisis, officials said.
Health Groups Urge Insurers to Cover COVID-19 Shots for Pregnant Women
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) is urging insurers to continue covering vaccinations during pregnancy in an open letter signed by 30 prominent professional health organizations. Pregnant patients and their infants are vulnerable to complications from COVID-19.
In the letter to payers and insurance companies released this week, ACOG stressed the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccinations and how they protect babies and pregnant people. It was signed by prominent professional groups including the American College of Physicians, Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Public Health Association.
The letter follows U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to eliminate the recommendation for COVID-19 vaccinations for healthy children and healthy pregnant patients, sidestepping an established decision process by scientists. Kennedy, who has made false claims questioning vaccine safety, earlier this week fired all 17 experts on the federal vaccine advisory committee panel, replacing them with eight new members, four of whom have spoken out against vaccines.
Moderna Receives U.S. FDA Approval for RSV Vaccine, mRESVIA, in Adults Aged 18–59 at Increased Risk for RSV Disease
Moderna, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved mRESVIA® (mRNA-1345), the Company’s respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, for the prevention of lower respiratory tract disease caused by RSV in individuals 18-59 years of age who are at increased risk for disease. This approval expands the previous indication of mRESVIA, which was approved in May 2024 for adults aged 60 years and older.
“RSV poses a serious health risk to adults with certain chronic conditions, and today’s approval marks an important step forward in our ability to protect additional populations from severe illness from RSV,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. “We appreciate the FDA’s review and thank all the participants in our clinical trial as well as the Moderna team for their dedication to protecting people against RSV.”
While the risk of RSV is well recognized in infants and older adult populations, adults aged 18-59 years with chronic conditions are also vulnerable.
Over one-third of adults aged 18-59 years have at least one underlying condition that puts them at increased risk of severe RSV disease, with disease burden and hospitalization rates in this population being comparable, or even exceeding, that observed in older adults.This approval was supported by results from Moderna’s Phase 3 study (NCT06067230), which evaluated the safety and immunogenicity of mRESVIA in adults aged 18-59 with underlying health conditions.
US Pharma Bets Big on China to Snap up Potential Blockbuster Drugs
U.S. drugmakers are licensing molecules from China for potential new medicines at an accelerating pace, according to new data, betting they can turn upfront payments of as little as $80 million into multibillion-dollar treatments. Through June, U.S. drugmakers have signed 14 deals potentially worth $18.3 billion to license drugs from China-based companies. That compares with just two such deals in the year-earlier period, according to data from GlobalData provided exclusively to Reuters.
That increased pace is expected to continue as U.S. drugmakers look to rebuild pipelines of future products to replace $200 billion worth of medicines that will lose patent protection by the end of the decade, analysts, investors, a banker and a drug company executive told Reuters. “They are finding very high-quality assets coming out of China and at prices that are much more affordable relative to perhaps the equivalent type of product that they might find in the United States,” said Mizuho analyst Graig Suvannavejh.
The total cost of licensing agreements, including low upfront payments and subsequent larger payouts, averaged $84.8 billion in the U.S., compared with $31.3 billion in China over the past five years, according to GlobalData.
