Mari Serebrov

Temperature matters when determining pH levels. Whether that level should be measured at a standard room temperature or refrigerated matters even more, at least in Actelion Ltd.'s infringement litigation against Mylan Inc.

On the heels of the ouster of Marty Makary as the U.S. FDA commissioner and the serial leadership vacancies at the CDC and the FDA's drugs and biologics centers, the government's adherence to science took another blow May 16 when Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., lost the Louisiana primary, ending his bid for re-election.

It looks like the end of the road for many of the court challenges to the Inflation Reduction Act's (IRA) provision requiring Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices. The U.S. Supreme Court denied cert May 18 to petitions brought by six biopharma companies that raised questions about the constitutionality of the negotiations. All but one of the suits involved were denied in the Third Circuit; the other one was denied in the Second Circuit, so there is no circuit split – yet.

It's back to the drawing board for the U.S. CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). After a year of Health and Human Services

What would normally be a routine meeting of the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee May 28 may be more carefully watched given the overall turmoil surrounding vaccines in the U.S. The only task before the adcom is to recommend the COVID-19 vaccine formula for the upcoming season. That conversation will include looking at the effectiveness of the four FDA-approved vaccines currently in use in the U.S.

Landing on the right COVID-19 vaccine formulation for the coming season is becoming more complicated against a backdrop of low vaccination rates, young children with little to no immunization, declining surveillance data and a new SARS-COV-2 lineage slowly emerging.

The Trump administration's efforts to ensure U.S. federal grants align with its policies may soon be coming to fruition. The White House Office of Management and Budget released a proposed rulemaking to revise its Guidance for Federal Financial Assistance.

In a little more than a month, 17 big biopharma companies will be subject to U.S. President Donald Trump's long-promised section 232 global biopharma sector tariff. But instead of paying the 100% duty on imported patented drugs and their key ingredients, most of those companies, if not all, will pay much reduced rates or no tariff at all, based on where the imports are coming from, what type of drug is being imported, and whether the companies have signed onshoring and most-favored-nation pricing agreements with the administration.

Although shot down last year by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, a constitutional challenge to a state law requiring biopharma companies to disclose trade secrets could live to see another court battle.

With increasing competition from China and other countries, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is rolling out Operation Trailblazer, a department-wide strategy to once again make the U.S. the go-to destination for early stage drug development.