Health Care — Pfizers Record Pandemic Earnings Expected To End

🏀 High school sports are highly competitive. The 22-year-old Virginia coach impersonated one of his basketball players.

On Capitol Hill, House Republicans passed their first Covid-related bills, including one that would remove the mandate to vaccinate health care workers.

But first, we'll look at Pfizer's record win and why it won't last.

Welcome to The Hill's Health Care Roundup, where we keep you up to date with the latest policies and news that affect your health. Our names are Nathaniel Wichsel and Joseph Choi.

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Pfizer expects revenue to fall by billions this year

Pfizer executives say the company expects revenue in 2023 to be significantly lower than in 2022 because the U.S. government canceled a contract for a COVID-19 vaccine and treatment.

During its fourth-quarter 2022 earnings call Tuesday, CEO Albert Barla said he expects 2023 to be a "transition year" as government upfront payments wind down and Comirnaty vaccine company and the company's antiviral treatment paxlovid become commercially available.

Pfizer executives have not officially disclosed how much the company will charge for its vaccine in the commercial market, but previously said it could be between $110 and $130 per dose.

Pfizer said 2022 was a banner year, with sales of its COVID-19 treatment products totaling nearly $57 billion.

• The company's COVID-19 windfall shows how dependent it is on contracts with the federal government.
  

• Pfizer expects vaccine sales to be $13.5 billion this year, down 64% from 2022.
  

• The pharmaceutical giant said it expects Paxlovid's revenue to fall 58% from 2022 to just $8 billion.

Learn more here.

FDA to update food safety program after formula crisis

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is launching a review of its food safety and nutrition division after a series of crises, including recent shortages of infant formula.

• As part of the decision, Commissioner Robert Califf said the FDA would merge two separate departments to create a new human nutrition program led by a deputy commissioner.
  

• The Deputy Commissioner will have the authority to make decisions regarding regulatory policies, strategies and programs as well as resource allocation and risk prioritization within the human nutrition program.

The FDA has long been criticized for not devoting sufficient resources to its food safety programs. The flaws came to light last year when parents were shocked by a shortage of baby formula.

The change announced Tuesday follows a scathing report by the Reagan-Woodall Foundation that found the FDA's food program too slow and risky, "weakening the agency's will to implement or make policy decisions."

Learn more here.

For the first time since 2014, the number of birth certificates increased

According to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the US birth rate will increase in 2021 for the first time since 2014.

In 2021, the total fertility rate was 56.3 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44, up 1% from 2020.

• According to the report, this is the first increase since 2014 after several years of recession, including a recent 4% decline between 2019 and 2020.
  

• In 2021, the total fertility rate, which is calculated as the number of births a woman has during her lifetime, increased by 1% compared to 2020, reaching 1,664 births per 1,000 women.

By age the birth rate declined among women aged 15–24 and increased among women aged 25–44. Birth rates were similar for the youngest (10–14 years) and oldest (45–49 years) age groups.

Learn more here.

Iowa law would criminalize distribution of abortion drugs

Republicans in the Iowa Legislature on Monday introduced a bill that would criminalize the manufacture or prescription of mifepristone, one of two drugs used for medical abortions.

The bill would make it illegal to "manufacture, distribute, prescribe, distribute, sell or transfer" generic or brand name mifepristone in the state, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The text of the bill states that imposing liability on a woman who has an abortion or restricting the use of contraception is "not subject to interpretation".

Abortion is legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks pregnant. In 2018, the Republican-controlled Legislature passed a law banning abortions in the sixth week of pregnancy, which Republican Governor Kim Reynolds later signed into law. However, in 2019, the law was blocked by a permanent ban.

After the Supreme Court struck down Roe Vs. Wade sought to overturn the Reynolds decision last June. His effort was struck down by a state court in December, and the governor has vowed to appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court.

Learn more here.

The House of Representatives passed a bill to remove certain wax warrants.

The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill to end vaccination mandates for some health care workers, the first pandemic-related bill since Republicans took control of the House.

The bill, called the Health Workers Freedom Act, passed by a vote of 227 to 203, with 7 Democrats joining the Republicans in support.

Rep. The measure, introduced by Jeff Duncan (RSC), would replace the Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary's workplace rules and standards enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the Medicare and Medicaid vaccination mandate. - certified material.

Health workers in Medicare and Medicaid-certified facilities are required by law to have at least the first dose of the primary coronavirus vaccine to provide care, treatment or services. More than 10 million healthcare workers are to be vaccinated at nearly 76,000 healthcare facilities.

• The rules sparked heated debate in the courts, and the Supreme Court ultimately upheld the requirement for health care workers, overturning a similar requirement proposed last year for large employers.
  

• Although these regulations are issued in response to the ongoing Public Health Emergency (PHE) caused by COVID-19, they are not affected by whether PHE is maintained. The White House announced Monday that the PHE will end on May 11.

not forever As noted in OSHA 2021, Medicare's interim final rules, such as vaccine requirements, expire three years after issuance unless they are finally approved.

"This is not an exception. This requirement will expire in November 2024 unless CMS takes further action," a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) told The Hill.

Learn more here.

What do we read?

• Nursing home owners are running out of money as residents get sicker, state documents show (Kaiser Health News)

• Blockbuster drug AbbVie Humira finally loses its 20-year, $200 billion monopoly (NPR)

• Drug use among adults rises during pandemic but falls among young people, study finds (CNN)

State to State

• Waltz signed the Minnesota Abortion Law (MPR).

• Another Colorado hospital refuses to allow women to plug their fallopian tubes, renewing questions about reproductive rights (Colorado Sun)

• Kentucky residents can now possess medical marijuana. How Connections Work (Lexington Herald-Leader)

OP-ED on the Hill:

Why Shouldn't COVID-19 Hospitalization Data Influence Local Policy Decisions?

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