• The Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee voted 21-2 to approve a bipartisan bill that reauthorized the Food and Drug Administration's ability to collect user fees from those who make prescription brand drugs, medical devices, generic drugs and biosimilars. The committee added several amendments to the bill, including one that sets a time frame of no more than eight months for the FDA to prioritize the review of new drugs introduced into uncompetitive markets. Another requires the FDA, the National Institutes of Health and other stakeholders to assemble a public meeting to discuss the potential barriers for patients to participate in clinical trials.
• The heroin epidemic is driving up hepatitis C infections, with the biggest increase in people in their 20s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week. The number of new infections nearly tripled in five years, to about 2,400 in 2015. The numbers could be higher. The virus is spread by sharing needles to inject drugs, and the increase coincided with a surge in heroin use. Most people don't get sick for many years, so they aren't tested and don't know they are infected. The CDC estimates that the number of infections in 2015 was 34,000, or twice as many as in 2010. The biggest jump in new infections is in people ages 20 to 29.
• The National Governors Association asked Congress to continue current levels of federal funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program for at least another five years. If Congress doesn't extend funding for the program by Sept. 30, states would start running out of federal funds the very next month, according to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission. According to Georgetown's Center for Children and Families, 8.9 million kids are covered by the program. The Senate Finance Committee postponed a planned hearing on CHIP reauthorization, reportedly at the request of committee Democrats who didn't want work on the House GOP's American Health Care Act to overshadow efforts to extend the children's program.
