Blog | 6/13/2025

Trump Administration Healthcare News: June 13, 2025

Health Advances weekly healthcare tracker focused on top level government administration news.

NOTE: All words/analysis are those from the source noted, opinions are those of the original authors and not reflective of Health Advances in general nor any individual. All sources are non-confidential and in the public domain (but some may be behind paywalls).

This issue reflects news as of 11 AM on June 12, 2025. The details and broad themes may have changed.

KEY HEALTH NEWS (Global)

Trump administration to cut all USAID overseas roles in dramatic restructuring

  • The Trump administration will eliminate all USAID (United States Agency for International Development) overseas positions worldwide by 30 September in a dramatic restructuring of remaining US foreign aid operations.
  • In a Tuesday state department cable obtained by the Guardian, secretary of state Marco Rubio ordered the abolishment of the agency’s entire international workforce, transferring control of foreign assistance programs directly to the state department.
  • The directive affects hundreds of USAID staff globally, including foreign service officers, contractors and locally employed personnel across more than 100 countries. Chiefs of mission at US embassies have been told to prepare for the sweeping changes to occur within four months.
  • “The Department of State is streamlining procedures under National Security Decision Directive 38 to abolish all USAID overseas positions,” the cable reads, adding that the department “will assume responsibility for foreign assistance programming previously undertaken by USAID” from 15 June.
  • https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/10/trump-fires-usaid-overseas-employees

House will vote on Trump's request to cut funding for NPR, PBS and foreign aid

  • The package to be voted on Thursday targets foreign aid programs and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides money for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, as well as thousands of public radio and television stations around the country.
  • In all, the package contains 21 proposed rescissions. Approval would claw back about $900 million from $10 billion that Congress has approved for global health programs.
  • That includes canceling $500 million for activities related to infectious diseases and child and maternal health and another $400 million to address the global HIV epidemic.
  • https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/house-vote-trumps-request-cut-funding-npr-pbs-122764163

The Trump Administration’s Foreign Aid Review: Status of PEPFAR

  • The U.S. has been the top donor government to HIV efforts, through PEPFAR and contributions to the Global Fund. 
  • The administration’s FY 2026 budget request includes $2.9 billion for bilateral PEPFAR activities, a decrease of $1.9 billion (final appropriation levels are determined by Congress).
  • It was recently reported that the administration has canceled 86% of all USAID awards. KFF analysis finds that of the 770 global health awards identified, 379 included HIV activities, 71% of which were terminated, including several HIV treatment awards as well as most HIV prevention.
  • https://www.kff.org/global-health-policy/fact-sheet/the-trump-administrations-foreign-aid-review-status-of-pepfar/

KEY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NEWS

RFK Jr. names 8 new members to CDC's vaccine advisory committee after purging entire panel

  • Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. named eight new members to serve on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) vaccine advisory panel just two days after he removed all 17 sitting members of the key advisory committee.
  • Kennedy described the decision to upend the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) as “prioritizing the restoration of public trust.”
  • RFK Jr. posted on X Wednesday evening that the eight new members will attend ACIP’s scheduled June 25 meeting.
  • The new members are:
    • Joseph Hibbeln, M.D. — a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who was the former acting chief of the Section on Nutritional Neurosciences at the National Institutes of Health, where he led research on immune regulation, neurodevelopment and mental health.
    • Martin Kulldorff, Ph.D. — a biostatistician and epidemiologist formerly at Harvard Medical School who co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration with Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., who is now director of the National Institutes of Health.
    • Retsef Levi. Ph.D. — professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan School of Management who also served as faculty director of MIT Sloan’s Food Supply Chain Analytics and Sensing Initiative.
    • Robert Malone, M.D. — a physician-scientist and biochemist who conducted early research on mRNA vaccine technology.
    • Cody Meissner, M.D. — professor of pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth who previously had advisory roles with both the CDC and the FDA.
    • James Pagano, M.D. — a board-certified emergency medicine physician
    • Vicky Pebsworth, Ph.D. — the Pacific region director of the National Association of Catholic Nurses. She is a former member of the FDA's Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.
    • Michael Ross, M.D. — clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University. He previously served on the CDC’s Advisory Committee for the Prevention of Breast and Cervical Cancer.
  • https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/regulatory/rfk-jr-names-eight-new-members-cdcs-vaccine-advisory-committee-after-purging-entire
  • HHS Press: https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/hhs-restore-public-trust-vaccines-acip.html

FDA To Use AI In Drug Approvals To ‘Radically Increase Efficiency’

MedPAC Calls for Higher Medicare Doc Payments Based on Healthcare Inflation Rate

  • Medicare physician pay should be increased yearly, with the increase based on the Medicare Economic Index (MEI), a measure of healthcare inflation, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) said in a report to Congress.
  • "The commission recommends replacing the current-law updates to the PFS with an annual update based on a portion of the growth in the MEI, such as MEI minus 1 percentage point, based on the historical evidence suggesting that updates of full MEI have not been necessary to maintain beneficiary access to care."
  • At a press briefing for reporters Wednesday, MedPAC executive director Paul Masi, MPP, said that their recommendation is based on several factors, including how hard it is for Medicare beneficiaries to find doctors who take Medicare.
  • https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/medicare/116028

KEY REVERSALS – RESCINDED ITEMS

FDA Brings Back Previously Disbanded Generic Drug Policy Panel

  • The reinstatement of the generic drug policy office is the latest reversal of course for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s HHS, which also recently rehired FDA staff responsible for making travel arrangements and those involved in user fee program negotiations.
  • The FDA has brought back its generic drug policy office after previously gutting the team, according to a Monday report from Endpoints News, marking the latest development in the Trump administration’s back-and-forth staffing measures.
  • It remains unclear why the FDA decided to reinstall the generic drug policy team, or how many of its former members will return, Endpoints reported, citing two FDA sources with knowledge of the matter who requested anonymity. One source told the publication, however, that some fired staffers had already reported to the FDA’s Maryland campus on Monday.
  • The FDA had disbanded its generic policy office in April—a move that former Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, in an opinion piece for STAT News, said “eliminated precisely the kind of government spending that delivered the most bang for the taxpayers’ buck.” This mass dismissal, he added, “could stall the arrival of affordable generic alternatives to some of today’s most expensive medications.”
  • https://www.biospace.com/fda/fda-brings-back-previously-disbanded-generic-drug-policy-panel

CDC backtracks on layoffs, rehires more than 400 people

  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reinstating more than 400 people who had received layoff notices, according to an email from CDC leadership to employees seen by POLITICO.
  • The rehiring, announced internally Wednesday, marks the largest number of employees that the agency has asked back to date.
  • Around half of those employees are in the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention, and around a third are in the National Center for Environmental Health.
  • Other divisions seeing reinstatements include the National Center for Health Statistics, Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, Office of Human Resources, Global Health Center, Office of Acquisition Services and Office of Communications.
  • https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/11/cdc-backtracks-on-layoffs-rehires-more-than-400-people-00400404

NIH director hopes to settle with US universities over suspended grants

  • National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya told a U.S. Senate panel on Tuesday that he was hopeful President Donald Trump's administration would reach a settlement with universities that have had research grants suspended.
  • "I'm very hopeful that these universities where these pauses have happened will come to terms so that we can move forward," Bhattacharya told the Senate Appropriation Committee's Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies at a hearing on the NIH's 2026 budget request.
  • The NIH has terminated 2,100 research grants totaling about $9.5 billion and an additional $2.6 billion in contracts since Trump took office January 20, they said in the letter. The contracts often support research, from covering equipment to nursing staff working on clinical trials.
  • Several terminations have already been reversed, said Bhattacharya, and other reversals are possibly on the way.
  • "I've established a process for appeals for those grant terminations and decisions, and hundreds of people have appealed. It won't take 18 months. It'll take weeks to get through those appeals. We've reversed many of them," he said. "I didn't take this job to terminate grants."
  • https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-nih-director-says-hopeful-will-settle-with-universities-over-suspended-grants-2025-06-10/

KEY POLLS - SURVEYS

KFF Health Tracking Poll: The Public's Views of Funding Reductions to Medicaid

  • The latest budget reconciliation bill, named the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” by Republicans, passed the U.S. House of Representatives in late May and will be taken up next by the Senate. The bill includes significant changes to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), among other health care provisions. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill would decrease federal Medicaid spending by more than $700 billion and result in more than 10 million people losing Medicaid coverage.
  • The latest KFF Health Tracking Poll examines the views and experiences of the groups that could be most directly impacted by the impending legislation.
  • Key takeaways include:
    • Those who get their coverage from Medicaid and the ACA Marketplaces represent a range of political identities.
    • Most of the public is worried about the consequences of significant reductions in federal Medicaid spending.
    • The poll finds a large majority of rural residents, and particularly those with lower household incomes, worry these cuts will lead to more children and adults losing health care coverage, harm providers in their communities, and make it more difficult for themselves and their families to access or afford health care.
    • Views on how the Trump administration’s policies will impact the country’s health care programs are largely partisan, even among people who are enrolled in these programs.
  • https://www.kff.org/medicaid/poll-finding/kff-health-tracking-poll-the-publics-views-of-funding-reductions-to-medicaid/

KEY BIOPHARMA NEWS

Trump officials seek price details and weigh consumer sales as they examine most favored nation plan

  • Officials in President Donald Trump’s administration have spent the month since his “most favored nation” drug price announcement trying to learn more about how pharma companies price their products abroad, through a series of one-on-one meetings with large drugmakers.
  • Those meetings, according to people familiar with the sessions, have been largely about fact-finding and learning about the global pharmaceutical market, rather than any kind of negotiation around pricing levels. The people who described the sessions spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private sessions.
  • A White House spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the meetings.

Justice Department and FTC to Host Listening Sessions on Lowering Americans’ Drug Prices Through Competition

  • As part of implementing President Trump’s Executive Order No. 14273, Lowering Drug Prices by Once Again Putting Americans First, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission, along with the Department of Commerce and the Department of Health and Human Services, will jointly host listening sessions to discuss ways to make prescription drugs more affordable for Americans by promoting competition.
  • The dates for the sessions are as follows:
    • Monday, June 30 at 2 p.m. ET – Anticompetitive Conduct by Pharmaceutical Companies Impeding Generic or Biosimilar Competition
    • Thursday, July 24 at 2 p.m. ET – Formulary and Benefit Practices and Regulatory Abuse Impacting Drug Competition
    • Monday, August 4 at 2 p.m. ET – Turning Insights into Action to Reduce Drug Prices
  • The listening sessions will be streamed on the FTC and DOJ websites, with videos and transcripts posted after the events. Additional information will be posted to the event page prior to each session.
  • https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-and-ftc-host-listening-sessions-lowering-americans-drug-prices-through

Cell and Gene Therapy Leaders Tell FDA: “Believe in American Solutions”

  • Leaders from the world of cell and gene therapy, including molecular geneticists, immunotherapists, physicians, nonprofit directors, and patient advocates, shared their personal stories and policy recommendations with leaders of the FDA in an extraordinary roundtable.
  • The roundtable was conducted in front of the FDA’s recently appointed top officials—commissioner Martin A. Makary, MD, and Vinayak (Vinay) Kashyap Prasad, MD, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. They were joined for the closing session by three other top healthcare leaders of President Donald Trump’s administration: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); the new NIH director Jayanta (Jay) Bhattacharya, MD, PhD; and Mehmet Oz, MD, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. 
  • “You have an almost providential power… that we want to unleash,” Kennedy said, looking around the room. He challenged the experts to find regulations that should be removed.
  • During a 90-minute roundtable, FDA leaders heard from more than a dozen leading experts in the cell and gene therapy community.
  • Makary pledged that the FDA should have a strong partnership with inventors and scientists, and companies. “We’re going to continue the successes of the FDA…. and try to improve by creating more efficiencies.” Areas of exploration included post-approval monitoring in the decision-making process and expanding access to priority review. 
  • https://www.genengnews.com/topics/genome-editing/cell-and-gene-therapy-leaders-tell-fda-believe-in-american-solutions/

KEY MEDTECH NEWS

FDA schedules first public MDUFA VI meeting ahead of negotiations

  • The Food and Drug Administration has scheduled a public meeting on Aug. 4 to discuss recommendations for the next medical device user fee period.
  • On Tuesday, the FDA said it wants to know what aspects of the current program should be reduced or axed, and how it should change the fee structure and amounts, among other topics.
  • The agency focused on what was working or should be added at the start of the reauthorization process for fiscal years 2023 to 2027.
  • Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the FDA, called for reforms to prescription drug user fees last year.
  • The FDA said it’s scheduling the meeting to provide the public with a chance to discuss recommendations for industry funding of regulatory services from fiscal years 2028 to 2032.
  • The meeting marks the start of a process that will center on negotiations between the FDA and industry.
  • https://www.medtechdive.com/news/fda-first-public-mdufa-vi-meeting-user-fees/750392/

FDA Proposes Device User Fee Staff Cuts Amid Budget Increase

  • FDA signaled plans to cut hundreds of staff from its device program, including people supported by industry user fees, in its fiscal year 2026 budget request.
  • The cuts would come even though the request would grant the device program an extra $8 million from Congress and a $33 million increase in industry user fee collections next year, adding up to a 5% year-over-year increase to $883 million.
  • Overall, the device program (including CDRH and FDA field staff focused on devices) would lose 461 “full-time equivalents” under the request, including 260 FTEs funded by the budget authority provided by Congress and another 201 user fee positions.
  • https://www.mystrategist.com/market-pathways/article/fda_proposes_device_user_fee_staff_cuts_amid_budget_increase.html   (subscription required for full-text)

KEY ACRONYMS

  • ACA = Affordable Care Act
  • ACIP = Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices
  • CDC = Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  • CDRH = Center for Devices and Radiological Health
  • CMS = Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
  • DOGE = Department of Government Efficiency
  • FDA = Food and Drug Administration
  • FTE = full-time equivalent
  • HHS = Department of Health and Human Services
  • MAHA = Make America Healthy Again
  • MDUFA VI = Medical Device User Fee Amendments Round 6
  • MedPAC = Medicare Advisory Payment Commission
  • NIH = National Institutes of Health
  • NPR = National Public Radio
  • PBS = the Public Broadcasting Service
  • PEPFAR = President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
  • USAID = U.S. Agency for International Development

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