Health Care

In its August 2024 issue, the journal Environmental International published an article called Tampons as a Source of Exposure to Metal(loid)s. The article reports on the results of a recent study by researchers from Columbia, UC Berkeley, and Michigan State that evaluated the presence of metals in different tampons. The research team evaluated 60 samples of tampons, representing 30 unique products from 24 different brands, for the presence of 16 different metals. The researchers found that all the tampons evaluated contained measurable concentrations of each of the 16 metals, including toxic metals such as lead, arsenic, and zinc.

Read about different health care priorities that may be pursued by the presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in the latest edition of our 2024 Pre-Election Analysis series on how the November 2024 election will impact the legislative and regulatory landscape.

CMS’s failure to address stakeholder proposals to modify the TCET program has increased interest and advocacy around Congress’s consideration of the Ensuring Patient Access to Critical Breakthrough Products Act. We explore both the shortcomings of the TCET pathway and the possible legislative solutions to its perceived gaps below.

Read about President Biden’s recent withdrawal from the 2024 presidential election and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee, including her stance on technology, climate change, health care, and tax policy.

On March 18, President Biden signed an executive order (EO) that contributes to the administration’s objective to create solutions to long-lasting women’s health issues that have been historically understudied and under-evaluated.

Read about the FTC’s March 5, 2024 workshop on private equity (PE) investments in the health care industry and a joint request for information on the effects of PE transactions in the health care industry issued by the FTC, DOJ, and HHS.

Read about Sprint for Women’s Health, a first-of-its-kind initiative to commit $100 million for research and development in women’s health, announced by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.

The next three weeks will be full of activity in Washington D.C., as the House of Representatives and Senate are working to push their legislative agendas to garner support from their constituents ahead of an August recess and before political “silly season” officially kicks in ahead of the upcoming mid-term elections in November. Here’s our latest update on what you can expect in Congress during the July work period.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, information has continuously evolved surrounding the virus and its effects on nearly every aspect of family and public life, particularly on families trying to balance work with remote or in-person learning for their children. In this webinar, two experts from MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) discussed current updates surrounding the effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccines for children.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had a busy 2020, as detailed in earlier blog posts. This blog post explores politics and a few policy activities we’ll be keeping an eye on in 2021 and how they might impact medical product manufacturers, particularly now that we know the U.S. Senate will be controlled, like the U.S. House of Representatives and the White House, by Democrats.

With the presidential transition underway, we now look forward to what the Biden administration will seek to accomplish, particularly in the realm of health care policy.

Aaron Josephson explains why FDA is looking to Collaborative Communities to help solve challenges in 2020 and the potential benefit to companies who participate in the development of public policy.