The stunning drop in drug deaths among people in the U.S. is being tracked in data compiled by the CDC and other federal agencies. The latest available records found fentanyl and other drugs killed more than 31,000 people under the age of 35 in 2021. By last year, that number had plummeted to roughly 16,690 fatal overdoses, according to provisional CDC data.
As President Trump touts his own executive orders to lower drug prices, the Medicare drug price negotiations begun during the Biden administration are continuing behind the scenes. Two companies – Novo Nordisk and Amgen – confirmed to NPR that they had received opening price offers from the government, kicking off bargaining that could last through October.
New research shows measles vaccination rates for children fell in almost 80% of counties across the country after the COVID-19 pandemic. A Johns Hopkins University study tracked immunization records across 2,066 counties and 33 states. Researchers compared the kindergarten vaccination rates from 2017-2020 to averages from 2022-2024.
There was a notable absence last week when U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a 58-second video that the government would no longer endorse the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children or pregnant women. The director of the CDC — the person who typically signs off on federal vaccine recommendations — was nowhere to be seen. The CDC, a $9.2 billion-a-year agency tasked with reviewing life-saving vaccines, monitoring diseases and watching for budding threats to Americans' health, is without a clear leader.
Amazon Pharmacy is rolling out new features in hopes of attracting more seniors covered by Medicare’s drug benefit, a potentially lucrative market dominated by CVS Health and Walgreens. Amazon says it is launching a new 'caregiver support feature' that allows its customers to have someone else manage medications on their behalf. Once the caregivers are verified through a secure invitation, 'caregivers can now manage medications for their loved ones,' the company says.
HHS is terminating a contract with drugmaker Moderna to develop a vaccine to protect against bird flu amid the agency's broader efforts to reevaluate therapies that use mRNA technology. The contract, which was worth $590 million, was announced in mid-January, just before President Donald Trump's second term. Moderna said Wednesday that an early-phase trial of its mRNA-based vaccine against H5 bird flu in about 300 healthy adults showed "a rapid, potent and durable immune response."