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Trump touts healthcare wins despite big Obamacare repeal failure. President Trump’s failure to deliver on his promise to repeal and replace Obamacare would rank as the greatest legislative failure of his presidency, yet on Monday he marked his first 500 days in office by sending a series of tweets about his accomplishments that highlighted several smaller wins on healthcare. Those include signing a bill into law that opens the door to terminally ill patients being able to try drugs that are still being tested and overseeing the passage of the tax law, which included the repeal of the Obamacare penalties for going uninsured beginning in 2019. He also touted releasing a plan to lower drug prices. The Trump administration will be rolling out cheaper health insurance plans that get around some of Obamacare’s requirements later this month, the president said. He also acknowledged the failure of attempts to repeal and replace Obamacare. He noted that the Senate failed to pass legislation, specifically alluding to the “skinny repeal” bill, a scaled back proposal that effectively would have served as a vehicle to advance to a healthcare conference with the House that would have produced final legislation. This approach fell short of support when Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., cast the surprise vote alongside Democrats and Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. “We had Repeal & Replace done (and the saving to our country of one trillion dollars) except for one person, but it is getting done anyway,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Individual Mandate is gone and great, less expensive plans will be announced this month. Drug prices coming down & Right to Try!”

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Supreme Court tosses lower court ruling in illegal immigrant teen abortion case. The Supreme Court tossed out a lower court ruling that paved the way for an illegal immigrant teenager to have an abortion while in federal custody and will send the case back to the lower courts. In an unsigned per curiam opinion Monday with no noted dissents, the court remanded the case back to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. With its decision, the court agreed with the request from the Trump administration, which asked the justices in November to weigh in. Justice Department lawyers had asked the high court to vacate the appeals court’s ruling and send the case back with directions to “dismiss all claims for prospective relief regarding pregnant unaccompanied minors.” Though the teenager at issue in the case, identified in court filings as Jane Doe, had the abortion, the Trump administration was worried other illegal immigrant pregnant teenagers would use the appeals court’s ruling in seeking an abortion. The issue in the case was not the right to an abortion, but instead whether the government had to facilitate access to an abortion for an unaccompanied teenager who came to the U.S. illegally and was apprehended by federal authorities.

CDC would lose control of emergency drug stockpile under House bill. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would lose control over massive warehouses of drugs, medical supplies, and vaccines under a House bill being taken up this week. The provision, part of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, or PAHPA, would fulfill a request by Trump to shift the emergency supplies, formally known as the Strategic National Stockpile, from the CDC to the Department of Health and Human Services’ assistant secretary for Preparedness and Response, which did not exist when the stockpile was created in 1999. The office is responsible for choosing and buying the supplies in the stockpile, so supporters say the roles should fall under the same agency. The bill’s hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

Iowa judge blocks strictest abortion law in the country. An Iowa judge temporarily blocked the most restrictive abortion law in the country from taking effect next month. The Iowa bill, signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds last month, bans most abortions once a heartbeat is detected, which is typically at six weeks. Lawyers for the state and groups challenging the law agreed to a temporary injunction that will prevent implementation of the measure, which was set to go into effect July 1. Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, and the Emma Goldman Clinic filed a lawsuit in state court challenging the measure, arguing it violates the state’s constitution.

FDA moves to streamline new drug approval system. The Food and Drug Administration is undertaking a massive overhaul to streamline how it approves new drugs. The goal of the modernization of the Office of New Drugs is to give FDA staff more time to review and provide feedback to drug makers on the design of a clinical trial, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Monday. “One goal is to engage sponsors earlier in the development process to ensure that trial designs are efficient and structured in the most effective way to identify risks and measure benefit,” he said. “Equally important, there will also be more ability to engage external stakeholders, such as disease specialists, academic researchers and regulatory partners at other agencies.” An overarching goal of the changes is to make the review process more common and predictable, a frequent critique from drug companies.

Trump expected to walk back cuts to Ebola response, report says. The White House is expected to walk back more than $350 million in cuts under its rescission program, including cancelling cuts to the Ebola response, according to Politico. The administration had been seeking to cancel $252 million in unspent funding that was used during the 2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The decision comes as an outbreak of Ebola in Congo has already left 20 people dead.

CVS stops donations to pro-Trump group. Pharmacy chain CVS Health said Friday it will no longer donate to the pro-Trump nonprofit America First Policies, where some staffers have made racist and anti-Semitic comments. The pharmacy chain gave $500,000 to the group last year. CVS said in a statement to the Washington Examiner that the donations were made to support advocacy efforts around tax reform. Several staffers at the group have made racist and anti-Semitic comments reported by several media outlets. “Comments made by employees of America First Policies that were reported after we made our contributions are unacceptable to us,” said CVS spokeswoman Carolyn Castel. “We have zero tolerance for discriminatory actions or behaviors, and as such we will not be making contributions to this organization in the future.”

Most women with early breast cancer don’t benefit from chemotherapy, study finds. A new study found that 70 percent of women with the most common breast cancer don’t benefit from chemotherapy after surgery. The groundbreaking TAILORx trial supported by the National Cancer Institute was started in 2006 to look into the best treatment approaches for breast cancer. The trial used a genetic test to determine the chances of cancer coming back. The study showed no benefit from receiving chemotherapy plus hormone therapy for 70 percent of patients with an intermediate cancer risk score. “These data confirm that using a 21-gene expression test to assess the risk of cancer recurrence can spare women unnecessary treatment if the test indicates that chemotherapy is not likely to provide benefit,” said Joseph Sprano, the study’s lead authors.

RUNDOWN

Axios Illegal drug trade thrives on social media

The Hill New York City considers adding ‘X’ gender category to birth certificates

Associated Press Feds: Skimping can’t save seniors from rising medicine costs

Wall Street Journal FDA chief expects agency to play role in overseeing requests for unproven drugs

Modern Healthcare Reigniting the physician arms race, insurers are buying doctor practices

Kaiser Health News Outsiders swoop in vowing to rescue rural hospitals short on hope and money

STAT News Cancer patients want immunotherapy even when evidence is lacking

NPR From chaos to calm: A life changed by ketamine