AP: Biden stresses drug prices as he tries to revive agenda

President Joe Biden is trying to revive progress on his stalled national agenda by refocusing attention on one of his most popular proposals, limiting the cost of prescription drugs. Biden is traveling to Culpeper, Va., on Thursday, where White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the president would draw attention to the “unacceptable” cost of the drugs. (Megerian, 2/10)

Fox Business: Biden Trip to Emphasize Lower Drug Prices as He Tries to Revive Agenda

President Biden will travel to Culpeper, Va., on Thursday and is expected to draw attention to the “unacceptable” cost of drugs in the United States as part of his effort to realize one of his key program proposals: limiting the cost of prescription drugs. The trip is seen as a chance to get his stalled national agenda back on track. Biden’s trip will also be an opportunity for him to begin promoting his party’s candidates in the November midterm elections. He is expected to appear alongside Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., who faces losing her seat representing a central Virginia district. Prescription drugs will be the focus of Biden’s visit. (Martin, 2/10)

And the White House pushes back on crack pipe ‘misinformation’ –

The Hill: White House challenges reports on federal funds for crack pipes

The Biden administration on Wednesday pushed back against what it called “misinformation,” saying a federal grant program intended to reduce harm to drug users does not include taxpayer funding for pipes that can be used. to smoke crack or methamphetamine. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a statement clarifying “no federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement to recipients to put pipes into safe smoking kits.” (Samuel, 2/9)

AP: No money for drug pipes: Feds quell social media storm

Putting out a firestorm on social media, the Biden administration said Wednesday that a grant program to combat the harms of illicit drugs would not pay for safer pipes for smoking crack or meth. The White House has been put on the defensive as outrage from the political right, some of it racially charged, mounts online. “No federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement to recipients to put pipes into safe smoking kits,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and drug policy adviser of White House Rahul Gupta in a joint statement. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Dupuy, 2/9)

More details emerge after Biden science adviser resigns –

Politico: Lander held on to vaccine maker’s stock for months

As Biden’s top science adviser, Eric Lander, the head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, publicly promoted Covid-19 vaccination efforts while having a significant financial investment in one of the vaccine makers, according to financial disclosures. Under the White House ethics accord Lander signed, he had 90 days to dispose of his shares after being confirmed by the Senate on May 28. While Lander lost most of those shares in June — including shares of BioNTech SE, the German biotech company and Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine partner — he waited until August 5 to sell the $500,000 to $1 million of remaining stock he held in that company. When Lander finally sold the stock 69 days after it was confirmed, it was the company’s second-highest price ever at $404.92 per share, after climbing more than $50 per share two days earlier. . (Thompson, 2/9)

Stat: The fall of Eric Lander and the end of science’s ‘big ego’ era

Eric Lander’s resignation as President Biden’s chief science adviser is not just a blow to a president’s plans to advance research, but a sign on the death march in a way to do science. It’s not quite “big science”, which leads nowhere. Call it “big ego”. In science, the “big ego” is not exactly a new phenomenon. But in recent decades it has grown with the emergence of researchers who can both handle the kind of gloveless debate that can mark academic discourse and mobilize vast resources to make certain kinds of scientific discoveries, like mapping genomes or understanding molecular changes in a cell. lead to cancer. (Herper, 2/9)