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Courtesy My Erstwhile Anon(s).: Here Is At Least One Take On Tangerine 2.0’s “Anti-Science” Bias — In His Executive Order Passels, This Week.

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It has taken us a moment here, to find free time to put this and an all-new graphic together — but it is courtesy of my long reading / suffering Anon.(s)… thanks go to them for showing me it. I likely never would have seen it, in the blizzard of Sharpie scribbles this week alone.

So it is, that Trump/Vance (and Musk, clearly!) want to prevent real life sciences researchers and policy experts from sharing what they’ve learned — with one another. And, to stymie the award of a very large number of already green-lit, and pending federal life science research grants. [To the extent that Tangerine 2.0 wishes to emphasize differing research goals, that is within his ambit, at 1600 Penn.]

But the wholesale mothballing of ALL science efforts, for disease mitigation, for example — or new mRNA vaccines work, in particular — should be beyond his remit. This agency at right — and other related agencies — were created, and specifically funded by long-ago Congressional Acts. So the argument runs that only the US House, by legislation (as keeper of the purse strings) can authorize what amounts to a near-shut-down. Here’s the latest story on what’s happening:

…Confusion and anxiety is rippling through the US health-research community this week following Donald Trump taking office as the 47th US president. His administration has abruptly cancelled research-grant reviews, travel and trainings for scientists inside and outside the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s largest public biomedical funder. Adding to the worry: the Trump team appears to have deleted entire webpages about diversity programmes and diversity-related grants from the agency’s site….

Researchers who spoke to Nature say that although a short, daylong pause in communications at US agencies has occurred in the past when new administrations have started, to reorient strategy, the reach and length of the Trump team’s — it is set to last until at least 1 February — is unprecedented. Without advisory-committee meetings, the NIH cannot issue research grants, temporarily freezing 80% of the agency’s US$47-billion budget that funds research across the country and beyond.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” says Carole LaBonne, a developmental biologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, who has received funding from the agency for more than 20 years….

As we’ve previously said — to the extent he targets DEI programs (or people), there exists strong precedent for challenging him in the courts, but this portends nothing near the slam dunk thumping that his preposterous “end birthright citizenship” Sharpie saw. The law here is in fact… murkier. So the focus has to be… on getting the word out, over the din/chaos/lies of what he always serves up.

Unfortunately, that is going to be a tall order, well into February / March. Damn.

Onward, just the same.

नमस्ते

Interesting — Parts Of This Brooks Opinion Are Worth Reading — And Pondering…

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From time to time, I read the NYT opinion page. And to be sure — I rarely agree wholeheartedly with what I see there. But that is the beauty of a free America: I can think (and more importantly, decide) for myself.

I am more than a little worried that many of my fellow Americans, those cheering Tangerine 2.0… lack the critical thinking skills to evaluate what they hear, and decide whether it rings true. Just see this, as one poignant example (these people believe he keeps promises?!).

Well… I cannot help them. And while I disagree about Brooks’ closing advice to Democrats (it is largely a troll operation / subterfuge — to build an imagined “glide path”, for a future Vance run/win — if he’s the nominee in 2028. This, as Brooks purports to say… a more competent authoritarian is what America needs. Not). I will reprint some of what he wrote, in spite of this.

Here’s what David Brooks had to say — and I will confess that at least half of it rings… pretty true.

…Over the past few months, and especially in his second Inaugural Address, Trump has gone all 19th century on us. He seems to find in this period everything he likes: tariffs, Manifest Destiny, seizing land from weaker nations, mercantilism, railroads, manufacturing and populism. Many presidents mention George Washington or Abraham Lincoln in their inaugurals. Who was the immortal Trump cited? William McKinley….

The problem with populism and the whole 19th-century governmental framework is that it didn’t work. Between 1825 and 1901 we had 20 presidencies. We had a bunch of one-term presidents; voters kept throwing the incumbents out because they were not happy with the way government was performing. The last three decades of that century saw a string of brutalizing recessions and depressions that profoundly shook the country….

“Populist thought showed an unusually strong tendency to account for relatively impersonal events in highly personal terms.” In other words, they thought they could solve the disruptions of industrialization if only they could find the evil conspirators who were responsible for every ill. Their diagnoses were simple-minded, their rhetoric over the top; their proposals, Hofstadter noted, wandered “over the border between reality and impossibility.” Sound familiar?….

Here’s how America recovered: Populist indignation finally got professionalized. In the 20th century, members of the progressive movement took the problems the populists were rightly angry about and built the institutions that were required to address them effectively — like the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Reserve. Populists had trouble thinking institutionally; the progressives, who were well trained, morally upright, self-disciplined, disgusted by corruption, intellectually rigorous (and sometimes priggish and arrogant) did not have that problem….

I would tell the American people that Donald Trump is right about a lot of things. He’s accurately identified problems on issues like inflation, the border and the fallout from cultural condescension that members of the educated class have been too insular to anticipate. But when it comes to building structures to address those problems — well, the man is just hapless and incompetent….

Thanks David. But that last bit… looks a lot like laying the groundwork for a Vance nomination in 2028. Hard pass.

We Democrats are not in the hurt you imagine us to be — or the one you spin to your MAGA masses. We are coming for your boy — peaceably and rationally. He will have imploded by 2026 (if not much sooner). We will then hold the Congress.

And Vance will be as relevant to the conversation… as Mike Pence or Dan Quayle is, now.

Y A W N.

Out.

Lilly “Fell Off A Cliff” In Q4 2024 — On Lobby Spend — And This, With Difficult Govt. Payor Negotiations On Its Weight Loss Franchises, Ahead… Odd.

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Yes, it is an election year. Yes, Tangerine 2.0’s influence is most chaotic in the days BEFORE he assumes office — as once in, the courts (as we’ve seen) may pretty promptly rein in the worst of him. But still… only spending under $200,000 in Q4 seemed. . . odd, for Lilly (see second chart — below right).

Thus, the list of what it bent Congressional ears on… is correlatively shorter than that seen in Q3 2024, to be certain. Anyway, here it is, for the $190,000 in spending, all in:

…▲ Issues related to intellectual property protection and market access within current trade negotiations. Canada IP; USMCA implementation; Mexico patent linkage; Special 301; Trade talks: US-Japan, US-China, US-EU, US-UK, US-India, and US-Brazil….

▲ Patient protection; Pharmaceutical supply chain issues and shortages; Drug pricing, coverage, value, access and quality; Transparency; Intellectual property; Health insurance accessibility; Implementation of the “Inflation Reduction Act” (HR.5376); Prescription drug approval; Affordable Insulin Now Act (S.954/HR.1488), The INSULIN Act; Policy matters related to Artificial Intelligence in health care….

▲ Intellectual property; 340B Program; Medicare & Medicaid prescription drug reimbursement, coverage and value; Implementation of the “Inflation Reduction Act” (HR.5376); CMS National Coverage Determination on Alzheimer’s disease; The INSULIN Act….

▲ Multi-lateral threats to IP and the biopharmaceutical industry; Drug importation; Prescription drug value, access and quality….

▲ Pharmaceutical intellectual property issues….

▲ Implementation of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act; Domestic manufacturing tax incentives; Expensing of research and development costs; Global minimum tax; Pension and retirement benefit issues; round-tripping [Ed. Note: what exactly is meant by this? A “donut hole” derivative?!]….

▲ Hospital discounts; 340B program; Prescription drug value, access, quality and compliance with Drug Quality and Safety Act….

Now you know — onward grinning — and scratching my head — as to what Lilly’s lobbying team means by “round tripping” [also, at the vast bump in traffic, out of Lilly’s HQ in the last forty-eight hours]. Here you go, folks! Smile.

Updated: if “round tripping” does not refer to US pricing of pharmaceuticals, but instead refers to the questionable tax minimization strategy of multi-nationals, generally — in moving IP to low tax jurisdictions, reporting vast income there, but then deploying the accumulated capital back into the US, to pay dividends on the Holdco (or to lend money to it) thus effectively repatriating the earnings, to build new factories, etc. (effectively tax nearly-free), while avoiding formal repatriation taxes… well, the company should be MUCH more transparent about it being a tax strategy that some it Congress may seek to curtail or end, entirely. So far, Tangerine 2.0 is completely mum on that topic (he very likely won’t understand it, when it is explained to him in small words, pictures and short sentences, some months from now, anyway!). Trump seems content to let PhRMA do as it pleases, at the moment. I guess that’s good news for Lilly — and the pharma majors.

नमस्ते

Most Savvy Analysts Believe Some US Controlled Entity, Or Group Of High Net Worth Individuals, Will Get Control Of TikTok US…

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This is a minor update, to our coverage of last week.

It is clear that Apple (and its market leading App Store) will NOT return the TikTok download to the App Store’s shelves until this is sorted out. It has formally said it is simply following the law the Supremes upheld last week. And we are beyond the grace period for a divestiture of the US operations that the Congress thoughtfully-baked-into the law, proper.

Perhaps the most surprising part of this delay is that (if MSM reports are to be believed) China’s Xi is now open to letting US investor(s) gain control of the US operations of TikTok. That, coupled to the likelihood that ByteDance has been talking to various suitors for months now. . . should signal a quick deal closing.

But I suppose with Tangerine 2.0 now muddying the waters — by saying maybe the US government must get a 50% stake in the US operations (a proposal with manifold Constitutional infirmities) — the calmer, more rational businesspeople at the negotiating table are seeking ways to blunt the orange tinged chaos (should they announce an M&A deal that doesn’t make the US government at least a part owner).

In any event, Condor thinks the proper lens on all of this is that it will take longer… precisely BECAUSE Trump infuses chaos everywhere he drops in. In time, though — the private parties’ deal (Amazon? Oracle? or another) will get done. [As we said before, Musk hisself has Hart-Scott problems here. since he personally controls X-itter (formerly Twitter, a competitor).] Here’s some representative coverage in the MSM:

…[T]he big question is now about who or what will buy TikTok and not whether ByteDance will sell it, some experts say. Still, it will be complicated. People have also expressed concerns over how a sale might affect TikTok’s unique algorithm, which is known for its ability to curate highly personalized feeds and may be hard to replicate by a new owner.

“What happens to the algorithm? Will this be an outright sale or a JV/partnership structure?” Dan Ives, an analyst for the financial services firm Wedbush Securities, wrote in an analyst note Wednesday. “Our view is ByteDance is willing to play ball and look for a legitimate deal/JV partner to keep TikTok up and running while protecting its algorithm. From the beginning we have only seen a few core potential bidders for the TikTok asset that would be ‘approved’ by Beijing…”

Trump has proposed the idea of a joint venture that produces a 50-50 ownership split between ByteDance and the United States, although it’s unclear whether he means ownership by the U.S. government [Ed. Note: Seriously, WTH, Tangerine?!] or a U.S. company….

As I’ve said before, I don’t use the stuff — but I am a balanced supporter of both… free expression privileges — and our own US national security concerns. We will keep an eye on it — so, do stay tuned. Onward, into a chilly, but sunny Friday here… with bright white stuff covering most open ground, still. [I’ll do a Lilly-focused Q4 2024 lobby piece next, based on high traffic out of Lilly’s HQ down in Indy. Grin….]

नमस्ते

As I Pointed Out To John Hinderaker, Last Night — That Argument Was D.O.A. — Idiotic, In Fact.

~ condor ~ 1 Comment

Or, “That Was… Swift. “The 14th Amendment Means Just What It Says”. Tangerine 2.0 Cannot Repeal It, With A Sharpie…”

These guys — geez — they are… preposterous.

Arguing that people without papers “are not subject” to US jurisdiction… is patently… silly. And self-defeating for these idiots. So the executive order is dead — before the Sharpie’s ink even had a chance to fully-dry.

Here’s the completely unsurprising account, from the AP:

…A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order redefining birthright citizenship, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional” during the first hearing in a multi-state effort challenging the order.

“This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” USDC Judge Coughenour (a Ronald Reagan appointee) told Shumate. The judge said he’s been on the bench for more than four decades, and he couldn’t remember seeing another case where the action challenged so clearly violated the constitution.

[Tangerine attorney] Brett Shumate said he… disagreed and asked the judge for an opportunity to have a full briefing on the merits of the case, rather than have a 14-day restraining order issued blocking its implementation.

Arguing for the states, Washington assistant attorney general Lane Polozola labeled as “absurd” the government’s argument that the children of parents living in the country illegally are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States….

Yep. Just as I said — when I gave you some “Lion King” to smile over. Here’s some more:

नमस्ते

Full Year ’24 Results: Amgen Lobby Spending; Year Over Year Trends, Against Three Other Majors…

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We have covered both Merck and Pfizer, in the Q4 ’24 lobby spends, of each — do see below, yesterday. Now it is time to look at the run-away full year 2024 leader: Amgen. This year’s spending was truly outsized — for the Thousand Oaks company — and doubly so — for an election year.

In any event, here is the (very hefty!) list of what all the bioscience major, Amgen spent on — just looking at Q4 ’24. But as I’ve said, I would expect Pfizer to once again be the overall spend leader in the full year 2025 — if for no other reason than that it is about double the size of most of the others, on market cap and global revenue:

…▲ Issues related to drug pricing reform; Changes to Public law 117-1769 Inflation Reduction Act; Awareness of implications to patients and research and development of Public law 117-1769; Inflation Reduction Act; S. 113 Prescription Pricing for the People Act of 2023; S.127 Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act; HR 830/ S 1375 HELP Copays Act; HR 485 Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act; HR 5378 Lower Costs, More Transparency Act; R 2534 PROTECT 340B Act of 2023; HR 3561 the PATIENT Act; S. 1542 DRUG Act; S. 1967 PBM Act; HR 3503 The NIH Clinical Trials Diversity Act; Issues related to cardiovascular disease awareness and treatment; Issues related to Federal Trade Commission; FDA issues; Issues related to patient affordability issues, including copay cards, copay accumulators, copay maximizers, National Benefit Payment Parameters; Biosimilars reimbursement issues, no specific bill; Supply Chain Issues, no specific bill; Issues related to 340B; Issues related to pharmacy benefit managers; Proposed rule: Medicaid Program; Misclassification of Drugs, Program Administration and Program Integrity Updates Under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program; HR 4818/ S. 2407 Treat and Reduce Obesity Act; S. 2305 Biosimilar Red Tape Elimination Act; S. 2129 Ensuring Access to Lower-Cost Medicines for Seniors Act; Issues related to PAHPA reauthorization; Modernizing and Ensuring PBM Accountability Act (Finance Committee); S. 652/ HR2630 SAFE Step Act; S 2474/ HR 5376 Share the Savings with Seniors Act; S 2456 Protecting Seniors from High Drug Costs Act; HR4881 To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to limit cost sharing for drugs under the Medicare program; HR 3281 Protecting Patients Against PBM Abuses Act; HR 4822 Health Care Price Transparency Act of 2023; S 1339 Pharmacy Benefit Manager Reform Act; HR 2679 Pharmacy Benefits Manager Accountability Act; HR 4507 Transparency in Coverage Act of 2023; HR 1352 Increasing Access to Biosimilars Act of 2023; HR 2880 Protecting Patients Against PBM Abuses Act; Issues pertaining to the implementation of PL 97-414 “Orphan Drug Act,” all provisions; HR 5539 Orphan Cures Act; HR 5547 Maintaining Investments in New Innovation Act; S 3558 BIOSECURE Act; HR 7174 Ensuring Pathways to Innovative Cures (EPIC Act); S Res 566 Cholesterol Education Month 2024; HR 7635 340B PATIENTS Act of 2024; H.R. 5391 / S. 2764 The Protecting Patient Access to Cancer and Complex Therapies Act; H.R.8574 – 340B Affording Care for Communities and Ensuring a Strong Safety-net Act; HR 5376 Share the Savings With Seniors Act; S 3430 Mental Health, Lower Cost Drugs and Extenders Package; BIOCOMPETE (no bill number)- Issues related to prohibiting the export of biotechnology to certain foreign entities; HR 8412 Clinical Trial Modernization Act; S 5573 Skinny Labels, Big Savings Act; HR 10515 American Relief Act….

▲ Issues related to corporate and international tax, including regarding Public Law 115-97, Tax Cuts and Jobs Act; Issues related to Puerto Rico; Issues related to OECD negotiations on the taxation of global income; HR 3938 Build it in America Act….

▲ S. 79/HR 1717 Interagency Patent Coordination and Improvement Act of 2023; S. 113 Prescription Pricing for the People Act of 2023; S. 1250 Drug-price Transparency for Consumers Act; S.127 Pharmacy Benefit Transparency Act; S. 150 Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act of 2023; S. 148 Stop STALLING Act; S. 142 Preserve Access to Affordable Generics and Biosimilars; Federal Trade Commission related issues, no specific bill; Issues related to the Patent Act, no specific bill; Issues related to March-In/Bayh Dole, WTO/TRIPS waiver, no specific bill; Issues related to patent thickets/product hopping;
Issues related to obviousness/double patenting; S.2140 Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2023; S.2220/HR 4370 Promoting and Respecting Economically Vital American Innovation Leadership Act; S.1128: A bill to establish special rules relating to information provided with respect to drug applications concerning method of use patents; H.R. 3858/S.1834: A bill to prohibit the President from negotiating or concluding any withdrawal, suspension, waiver, or modification to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights without explicit authorization from Congress; H.R. 3535 Advancing Americas Interests Act; H.R. 5475 Prohibiting Adversarial Patents Act of 2023; S.3385/HR 8333– BIOSECURE Act; BIOCOMPETE (no bill number) — Issues related to prohibiting the export of biotechnology to certain foreign entities; Issues related to FDA/PTO coordination; S.2780 Medication Affordability and Patent Integrity Act; Issues related to skinny labeling; S. 3583/HR 6986 To Address Patent Thickets; S. 1956 Invent It Here, Make It Here Act; S 5573 Skinny Labels, Big Savings Act [Ed. Note: Seriously?!]….

Now you know — and depending on other commitments, we may not separately cover Lilly this quarter, since it only spent $190,000 all in. Indeed, starting next week, postings may diminish overall here — as I spend more of my free daylight hours, in pro bono / street law / ACLU-directed and filed-federal litigation practice, against the largely comically inept Tangerine 2.0 “initiatives”. Onward, resolutely. Ever, onward.

नमस्ते

Epilogue: Long Time Govt. Lawyer Sarah Fabian (Under Tangerine 1.0)… Has Left The Building. She Was The Advocate For NOT Giving Kids A Blanket Or Soap Or Bedding Or A Toothbrush — Under Tangerine 1.0.

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Well — in the long-running Ms. L. class litigation, in San Diego (before the able and considerate USDC Judge Dana Sabraw), it is surprising (to me, at least) that Sarah Fabian is not going to stick around for Tangerine 2.0.

She also once argued that she couldn’t come to an emergency hearing for kids detained in cages in sweltering heat… because she had agreed to walk a friend’s dog over the weekend. A dog. I. cannot. even.

Moreover, I watched her argue — in the Ninth Circuit (falsely) — that no law requires any of the federal agencies to provide children (they’ve forcibly separated from their parents, and) then detained — in large drafty 60 degree windowless concrete caverns (in winter), so much as a blanket, a toothbrush or soap. [I will append the link to that videotape, below — if I can find it, now deep in my archives. As the able Ninth Circuit Judges asked: “Surely Ms. Fabian, you aren’t going to tell us that not having these things complies with the requirements of ‘safe, and sanitary’ housing for children?!?“]

When pressed as to whether she felt that hers was an unreasonable position to take, as to children alone, in jails, in a country where they mostly do not even understand the language. . . she doubled down to the effect that “the four corners of the decree do not say anything about ‘sleeping‘, your honor”.

Obviously, our treaties (and the consent decree) and the Joint Convention on Asylum Seekers were directly violated by Tangerine 1.0, and the Ninth Circuit, and then the Supremes — so held. Here’s her departing motion. See ‘ya, sister:

…PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that Sarah B. Fabian hereby respectfully moves to withdraw as counsel of record for Defendants-Respondents in the above-captioned case on the grounds that her employment with the U.S. Department of Justice will end on January 25, 2025. Defendants will continue to be represented by all remaining counsel of record for Defendants.

Dated this January 21, 2025….

ORDER Granting Motion to Withdraw as Attorney, Sarah B. Fabian [758] Motion to Withdraw as Attorney. Attorney Sarah B. Fabian terminated.

Signed by Chief District Judge Dana M. Sabraw on 1/22/2025….

Onward. And good riddance. Out, now — but why leave now, Ms. Fabian? Was it that you just loafed through four years of the Biden Administration? I genuinely want to know.

नमस्ते

Pfizer’s Q4 2024 Lobby Spend — Compared To Prior Three Years — Is Down Quite A Bit…

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While Amgen has also been a large spender in the last four years, overall — it has been Pfizer (partly due to larger market cap) that led the pack for the last decade among pharma majors.

This year though, Pfizer decided to mostly sit out the election year, making Merck the runaway leader (for the full year). At least for 2024. It seems highly likely Pfizer will spend heavily in 2025 to blunt the Kennedy Jr. effect. All of Tangerine 2.0’s talk about being a populist, and seeking lower drug prices, for consumers… is just that: idle talk. He will do as PhRMA tells him — but Kennedy is a bit of a wild card, at least as to vaccines. Should be entertaining. Here’s Pfizer’s Q4 2024:

▲…Inflation Reduction Act (IRA); HR 7174 – Ensuring Pathways to Innovative Cures (EPIC) Act; Medicare Price Setting; Drug Shortages; Global Access to Medicines; Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR); March-in Framework Guidance and Policies; S 79/ HR 1717 – Interagency Patent Coordination and Improvement Act of 2023; S 142 – Preserve Access to Affordable Generics and Biosimilars Act; HR 6986 – To address patent thickets; S 150 – Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act of 2023; S 2780/ HR 5429 – Medication Affordability and Patent Integrity Act; Antimicrobial Resistance; PBM Transparency and Reform; S 1542 – Delinking Revenue from Unfair Gouging (DRUG) Act; S 3430 – Better Mental Health Care, Lower-Cost Drugs and Extenders Act; S 2973 – Modernizing and Ensuring PMB Accountability Act; 340B Reform; HR 8574 – 340B Affording Care for Communities and Ensuring a Strong Safety-net (ACCESS) Act….

▲ S 723/HR 1458 – Access to Prescription Digital Therapeutics Act; HR 8816 – American Medical Innovation and Investment Act of 2024….

▲ Comprehensive Corporate Tax Reform; Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA); VICP Reform and Excise Tax; Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund; VICP Transition; Comprehensive Federal Tax Reform….

▲ International Supply Chain; HR 4307/S 2115 – Medical Supply Chain Resiliency Act….

Now you know — and I may ignore Lilly this time around, as it only spent $190,000 in the whole fourth quarter. It was always spending less than the peers — but it just. . . disappeared, in Q4. I suspect the plan is a new push on insulins, and on the weight loss meds… here in the new year 2025. We shall see, but maybe they think they don’t need the spend with Tangerine 2.0 in office. If that is the view in Indy… it is an… unwise one, in my experienced opinion. Onward.

नमस्ते

We Will First Look At Just Q4 ’24 Lobby Spend, Then Full Year Trends — First Up? Merck.

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For the bulk of 2024, Pfizer had radically dropped its lobby spend in the election year — but here in Q4, post the election — it has jumped back up to the top of the leader board, essentially dead even with Amgen.

As a consequence, Merck (which outspent all during the first three quarters) had now fallen back to a more normal $1.7 million spend per quarter. We will have a series of these, on each name below — and then at the end, compare the lot of them to Amazon’s health related lobby spending. [Hint: it dwarfs these.] Here’s Merck — to start us off:

…▲ H.R. 3, (117th Cong.) Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act; H.R. 19, (117th Cong.) Lower Costs, More Cures Act of 2021; H.R. 830, Help Ensure Lower Patient (HELP) Copays Act; H.R. 1503/S. 2916, Prescription Information Modernization Act of 2023; H.R. 2679, Pharmacy Benefits Manager Accountability Act; H.R. 2691, Transparent Prices Required to Inform Consumer and Employers (Transparent PRICE) Act; H.R. 2816, Pharmacy Benefit Manager Sunshine and Accountability Act; H.R. 2880, Protecting Patients Against PBM Abuses Act; H.R. 2940/S. 1355, Pioneering Antimicrobial Subscriptions to End Upsurging Resistance Act (PASTEUR) Act of 2023; H.R. 3290, To amend title III of the Public Health Service Act to ensure transparency and oversight of the 340B drug discount program; H.R. 3285, Fairness for Patient Medications Act; H.R. 3633, PREVENT HPV Cancers Act of 2023; H.R. 4368/S. 2131, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024; H.R. 4895, Lowering Drug Costs for American Families Act; H.R. 5376/S. 2474, Share the Savings with Seniors Act; H.R. 6283, Delinking Revenue from Unfair Gouging (DRUG) Act; H.R. 7174, To amend title XI of the Social Security Act to equalize the negotiation period between small-molecule and biologic candidates under the Drug Price Negotiation Program; H.R. 7635, The 340B PATIENTS Act of 2024; H.R. 8467, Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024; S. 150, Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act of 2023; S. 1339, Pharmacy Benefit Manager Reform Act; S. 1895 (116th Congress) Lower Health Care Costs Act; S. 2333, Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Response Act; S. 2543 (116th Congress) Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act of 2019; S. 4229, Reducing Drug Prices for Seniors Act….

▲ Issues relating to… 340B program integrity; 340B of the Public Health Services Act; 340B issues; 340B drug pricing program; Drug pricing; Drug pricing and reimbursement issues; Anti-microbial Resistance; Cost and value of medicines; Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) immunization; Vaccines catch up; Vaccines issues; Package inserts, labeling issues, and E-Labeling authorization legislation; Pharmaceutical Supply Channel issues; Drug shortage issues; Inflation Reduction Act (P.L. 117-169), issues relating to drug pricing provisions; Issues related to the Patent and Trademark Law Amendments Act (PL 96-517); FY-2024 Budget and Appropriations Legislation; Intellectual property protection and trade issues; WTO IP Waiver for COVID therapeutics; Animal Health; Animal Health Technology Issues; National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) draft Interagency Guidance Framework for Considering the Exercise of March-In Rights; Animal Health Policy Issues: ADUFA & Funding for Electronic Animal Traceability; One Health Issues; General pharmaceutical issues; Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP); Diversity in clinical trials; Accelerated approval reform; Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) policy issues; Pharmacy Benefit Manager reforms; Food and Drug Administration issues; Public Health Issues….

▲ H.R. 1613, Drug Price Transparency in Medicaid Act of 2023; H.R. 2666, Medicaid VBPs for Patients (MVP) Act; H.R. 7174, To amend title XI of the Social Security Act to equalize the negotiation period between small-molecule and biologic candidates under the Drug Price Negotiation Program; H.R. 7635, The 340B PATIENTS Act of 2024….

▲ Issues relating to… Medicare; Medicare Part B and D drug pricing issues; 340B program integrity; 340B of the Public Health Services Act; 340B drug pricing program; Drug pricing; Drug pricing and reimbursement issues; FY-2024 Budget and Appropriations Legislation; Medicaid drug rebate program (MDRP); Medicare coverage of COVID antiviral medicines….

▲ Issues relating to… Tax reform and tax policy, generally; Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (P.L. 115-97); Inflation Reduction Act (P.L. 117-169), provisions relating to budget reconciliation and taxes….

Now you know — next installment due out this afternoon, if I find the time over lunch. But it is clear that these majors, especially those making vaccines — will need to work on Kennedy Jr. day and night — to avoid his inadvertently causing some vast losses — of human lives.

Ugly, but true.

Onward.

नमस्ते

[U] In The Land Of The Blind… This Guy Is Not A King. Not Even… A Fully-Functioning Adult.

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So… in his first move toward greater “efficiency in government“, Tangerine 2.0 proposes to pay federal workers… to NOT come to work.

But only if they are DEI employees.

Many of them have what amounts to full property rights in these federal jobs (that is, are immune from being demoted or fired, without a specific performance related issue — well documented), and so, many will sue — saying that targeting them alone, over all others is plainly a “suspect classification“, under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. [BTW, Tangerine cannot change Acts of Congress, via his silly black Sharpies.] Most of them are likely to win. That is, they will get both back- and front-pay, be reinstated and maybe even win some punitive damages — for Tangerine 2.0’s targeting of them. Yes — that sure sounds… “efficient”. Not.

On top of that, he attempts to “mandate” that each federal agency “identify” investigative targets for the DoJ, where it is suspected that private employers are… valuing people of diverse backgrounds. Putting aside that no one knows what that might mean, none of those terms appear anywhere in any of these agencies’ grants of authority from the Congress. That is, this directive exceeds the charter the agencies hold, by statute. That will be enjoined in a matter of months if not weeks, from now. But here it is:

…As a part of this plan, each agency shall identify up to nine potential civil compliance investigations of publicly traded corporations, large non-profit corporations or associations, foundations with assets of 500 million dollars or more, State and local bar and medical associations, and institutions of higher education with endowments over 1 billion dollars….

Well… Scott Johnson seems blissfully unaware that Tangerine’s Sharpie only wrote a “dead letter” here.

He — and the low information voters who chose this guy… are already getting just exactly the expensive, silly chaos he promised. Charming.

[And in his signature “law and order” move, he’s pardoned or commuted several hundred people who violently assaulted police officers on J6.] Charming, indeed. Onward — to lobbying trends for Q4 2024 (just released), in life sciences / pharma — up next.

नमस्ते