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House takes up bill giving patients ‘right to try’ experimental meds. The latest vote on a bill that would allow terminally ill patients to try experimental medicines comes nearly two months after the House passed a different version of this provision, known as “Right to Try,” but could not get it through the Senate. The House is now taking up a version of the bill that the Senate unanimously passed in August, introduced by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind. The senators said Monday that they looked forward to the House taking up the bill and passing it. “Many people have worked tirelessly on behalf of terminally ill patients and their families to see right to try become law,” the senators said. Under the bill, people must try all other possible treatments before they are allowed to try experimental drugs. Additionally, the legislation would give drug manufacturers and those involved in testing the drug on humans liability protections if results of a drug or treatment on a patient went awry. “When the House passes #RightToTry legislation I stand ready to implement it in a way that achieves Congress’ intent to promote access and protect patients; and build on #FDA’s longstanding commitment to these important goals #RTT,” Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on Twitter this morning.

But some groups aren’t happy. A collection of more than 100 health advocacy groups is imploring Congress to shoot down ‘right to try.’ The groups are concerned that the legislation could “allow unproven therapies and treatments to be administered to patients without FDA notification or involvement, and with no standard for patient informed consent,” according to a letter from the groups sent on Monday to the House. “The legislation would roll back essential patient safeguards and could result in patients being harmed by unproven, and potentially unsafe, therapies.” The American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network, National Organization for Rare Disorders and Friends of Cancer Research are among the groups that signed the letter.

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U.S. to contribute additional $7 million to Congo’s Ebola fight. The U.S. will contribute an additional $7 million to the fight against Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, President Trump’s health chief announced Tuesday. The U.S. already has contributed $1 million to efforts in the nation, which is facing an outbreak of Ebola in the rural area of Bikoro and in Mbandaka, a larger city.

Trump to keynote prominent anti-abortion gala tonight. Trump will speak tonight at Susan B. Anthony List’s “Campaign for Life” gala at the National Building Museum, where Raj Shah, White House principal deputy press secretary, said he would “discuss the many actions he has taken to protect the lives of the unborn and defend religious liberty.” SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser was on Trump’s pro-life coalition when he was running for president, and called Trump “the most pro-life president in our nation’s history.”

Farm bill on ice after House defeat. House lawmakers have no immediate plans to reconsider a sweeping farm bill that conservatives and Democrats defeated last week, leaving the legislation in limbo for the foreseeable future. The House is out of session next week and is not back until June 5, and the farm bill is nowhere in sight. Floor schedulers won’t say when, or if, the farm bill will be reconsidered during the June work period. Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., called up the bill for a second vote after it failed on Friday, but nobody knows when the vote will take place. “This is less a question of votes needed and more a question of tactics being used for unrelated matters,” a GOP leadership aide told the Washington Examiner. “The farm bill will come back up again for a vote, but not this week.” The House voted 198-213 Friday to defeat the 2018 Agriculture and Nutrition Act, a five-year, $868 billion bill authorizing farm programs and policy, as well as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as SNAP or food stamps.

Lawmakers want to solve mysterious maternal deaths. Every year, 65,000 women almost die from pregnancy or childbirth. Hundreds more die, and the fact that infants are being left motherless in the U.S. is drawing the attention of Congress. “I do think that there is really a willingness on both sides to talk about this and deal with this,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill. “It’s a question of making sure it gets the right priority. I’m trying to highlight it and move it up in people’s priorities so that perhaps we can deal with this sooner rather than later.”

700,000 more people uninsured under Trump. The number of uninsured Americans climbed by 700,000 people during President Trump’s first year in office, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2017, 29.3 million people were uninsured, a 0.1 percentage point increase from 2016, when the number of uninsured had fallen to a record low of 28.6 million people. The total brings the uninsured rate in the U.S. to 9.1 percent. The highest rate of uninsured was among younger adults between the ages of 25 and 34, at 17.2 percent. Insurers often say this group, known as “young invincibles” because they tend to be healthy and are more willing to take risks, is among the hardest to persuade to buy health insurance.

Seniors pay more for generics under Medicare Part D. A new analysis found that seniors are paying more for generic drugs under Medicare even though prices remain flat. The analysis from the research firm Avalere Health comes as the Trump administration is pushing to move more drugs into Medicare Part D, the program’s prescription drug plan, because it can lead to lower prices.

Analysis comes as more drugs could be covered under Part D. The analysis dropped a few weeks after President Trump announced a plan to shift some drugs from Medicare Part B over to Part D. Part B reimburses doctors and providers for drugs administered at a doctor’s office, such as vaccines and chemotherapy drugs. Part D is the prescription drug plan seniors use to get drugs at the pharmacy. Part D has private plans that administer the prescription drug plan for seniors, and those plans negotiate with drug makers for lower prices. The Trump administration wants to shift some drugs from Part B to Part D to expose some drugs to discounts from negotiation. Part B does currently negotiate for lower prices. Medicare reimburses a doctor for the average sales price of a drug plus another 6 percent. The administration has not detailed which drugs would move from Part B to Part D, and the pharmaceutical industry is pushing back hard on the proposal. But the Avalere analysis shows that even giving private plans negotiating power doesn’t always lead to lower prices.

Overuse of ADHD drugs drops slightly after decade of increases. The rate of overexposure to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drugs soared by about 61 percent from 2000 to 2011, but the rate fell slightly in the following three years, according to a new study. The study published Monday in the Journal of Pediatrics looked at trends for people up to 19 years old who were reported to U.S. poison control centers.

FDA expands crackdown on herbal supplement kratom. The Food and Drug Administration is going after three marketers and distributors of products containing the herbal drug Kratom, saying they are making false claims about the controversial pain drug. The warnings announced Tuesday by the FDA is part of a larger crackdown on Kratom, which the agency said is not safe. There are no FDA-approved uses for it. The companies made false claims that Kratom can help people recover from opioid addiction and treat pain, cancer and lower blood pressure, the FDA says. “Despite our warnings that no Kratom product is safe, we continue to find companies selling Kratom and doing so with deceptive medical claims for which there’s no reliable scientific proof to support their use,” said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb. In February, the agency told manufacturers that they should take Kratom products off the market because “extensive scientific data” conclude that it has addictive effects similar to opioids. But some experts have pushed back on the notion that Kratom isn’t safe or contributes to the opioid epidemic.

California attorney general appeals ruling overturning medically assisted suicide law. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has appealed a judge’s decision to overturn the state’s law allowing doctors to prescribe life-ending medications to terminally ill patients who request it. Judge Daniel Ottolia of the Riverside County Superior Court ruled that the state’s law, the End of Life Option Act, was passed unconstitutionally because it was done by the legislature during a special session intended to focus on healthcare. Becerra filed an emergency request Monday asking for the law be allowed to stay in place until the matter could be decided by an appeals court.

Anthem to stay in Indiana, plans new $20 million office. Health insurer Anthem Inc. announced on Tuesday that it would keep its headquarters in Indianapolis and invest $20 million in a new corporate office. Rumors were circulating for months that Anthem would move to Atlanta following the opening of the $150 million Anthem Technology Center there. The company has been based in Indianapolis since it was established more than 70 years ago. The new office building will hold more than 2,600 employees. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Under the GOP-led tax law, companies can fully expense the cost of investments made to the business. Prior to 2018, companies could expense only a portion of those purchases each year. A surge in capital spending has accompanied the policy shift.

RUNDOWN

The Hill Poll: Support for vaccines falls

Axios Michigan drops plan to relax Medicaid work requirements

Bloomberg Deadly Chinese fentanyl is creating a new era of drug kingpins

STAT News ‘You’re holding your breath:’ Scientists who toiled for years on an Ebola vaccine see the first one put to the test

Washington Post Suicide rate for black children twice that of white children, new data shows

Kaiser Health News Are you and your primary care doctor ready to talk about your DNA?

Associated Press Virginia leaders propose spending plan that expands Medicaid