San Diego Union-Tribune: Novartis To Acquire San Diego-Based Regulus In Deal Worth Up To $1.7B
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis is poised to expand its profile in the San Diego area, announcing plans to acquire Regulus Therapeutics, a local company on the cusp of bringing a potential breakthrough treatment for kidney disease onto the market. (Nikolewski, 5/1)

Becker's Hospital Review: Gilead To Pay $202M To Settle Kickback Allegations
Gilead Sciences has agreed to pay $202 million to resolve allegations that it violated the Anti-Kickback Statute by using speaker programs to incentivize physicians to prescribe HIV medications. Federal prosecutors alleged that the company offered payments, meals and travel expenses to healthcare providers who spoke at or attended events promoting Gilead’s HIV drugs, according to an April 29 news release from HHS’ Office of Inspector General. (Murphy, 5/1)

MedPage Today: Nasal Powder For Acute Migraine Gets FDA Nod
The FDA approved dihydroergotamine (DHE) nasal powder (Atzumi) 5.2 mg to treat acute migraine with or without aura in adults, Satsuma Pharmaceuticals announced Wednesday. The product is the only DHE nasal powder for acute migraine, Satsuma said. It uses the Simple MucoAdhesive Release Technology (SMART) platform which combines proprietary powder and device technology to simplify DHE delivery. (George, 5/1)

Becker's Hospital Review: FDA Probes Compounding Pharmacies Over Quality Concerns
The FDA plans to gather information from 250 compounding outsourcing pharmacies amid safety and quality concerns. In a May 1 notice, the agency said it will survey outsourcing facilities about challenges and opportunities related to market and business viability, compliance, quality production and interactions with the FDA. Drug compounding is the mixing or altering of ingredients to meet a patient’s medication needs, especially during times of drug shortages. (Twenter, 5/1)

Stat: Aetna To Abandon Affordable Care Act Insurance Marketplaces, Again 
CVS Health will not sell its Aetna health plans in the Affordable Care Act’s individual marketplaces in 2026, marking the second time in the past decade that Aetna has given up on ACA coverage. (Herman, 5/1)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Delays Hospital Payments As Medicaid Scrutiny Intensifies
Unexpected delays in billions of dollars of supplemental Medicaid payments have forced some hospitals across the country to cut costs including laying off staff and pausing payments to medical suppliers. Hospital associations in at least 10 states said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency responsible for approving funds known as state-directed payments, has been unusually slow at processing applications for them. Some of the delays date to the fall of 2024. (Mosbergen, 5/2)

The Hill: House Conservatives Call For Controversial Medicaid Changes In Reconciliation
A group of House conservatives is calling for significant “structural reforms” of Medicaid as part of the Republican reconciliation legislation, illustrating the seemingly intractable differences across GOP factions. In a “Dear Colleague” letter led by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and signed by 19 others, the lawmakers said the GOP conference must pursue “meaningful reforms” in reconciliation, including eliminating the enhanced federal matching funds for states that expanded Medicaid. (Weixel, 5/1)

Becker's Hospital Review: Sharp Hospital Workers Vote To Unionize
Sharp Coronado Hospital workers voted April 30 to join Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West. Of 404 eligible voters, 318 ballots were tabulated, according to the National Labor Relations Board. The vote was 209-109 in favor of unionization. One ballot was challenged. The workers at Sharp Coronado will join more than 5,000 workers across San Diego-based Sharp HealthCare who previously voted to join SEIU-UHW. (Gooch, 5/1)

The New York Times: Federal Report Denounces Gender Treatments For Adolescents
Federal health officials published a report on Thursday declaring that the use of hormonal and surgical treatments in young people with gender dysphoria lacked scientific evidence and expressing concern about long-term harms, a stark reversal from previous agency recommendations and the advice of top U.S. medical groups. The report instead prioritized the role of psychotherapy, a divisive intervention to treat gender dysphoria that many advocates and physicians have equated with so-called conversion therapy. (Ghorayshi and Harmon, 5/1)

ProPublica: A Gutted Education Department’s New Agenda: Roll Back Civil Rights Cases, Target Transgender Students
The Trump administration is subverting the traditional priorities of the department’s decimated civil rights office by making discrimination investigations practically impossible — instead enforcing its own anti-diversity campaign. (Richards and Cohen, 5/2)

The Bay Area Reporter: Omnibus Federal LGBTQ Bill Dead On Arrival
For the fifth congressional session in a row, Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill have introduced an omnibus federal LGBTQ rights bill. Known as the Equality Act, it is dead on arrival due to Republicans’ control of both chambers of Congress and the White House. Nonetheless, the law’s backers used its reintroduction April 29 to hammer away at the myriad actions the Trump White House has taken to roll back the rights of LGBTQ Americans during Republican President Donald Trump’s first 100 days of his second term. He and his administration have particularly focused on reversing the rights gained by transgender, intersex, Two-Spirit, and gender-nonconforming youth and adults. (Bajko, 5/1)

Fresno Bee: Fresno Faces Major DOGE Funding Cuts, Impacting Services
Dozens of nonprofits, foundations and government agencies in the San Joaquin Valley risk losing millions of dollars of funding cuts or freezes under the Trump administration’s push to reduce “wasteful” government spending. ... A Fresno Bee analysis of contracts, grants and terminated leases found that, as of April 25, the region could lose at least $45 million in funding cuts, impacting public health, teacher training, immigration services and more. (Montalvo, 5/1)

AP: Email Discloses HHS Plans To Cut Research Of Child Welfare Programs
The Trump administration could gut research on the effectiveness of child welfare programs, with plans to terminate dozens of university grants studying improvements to Head Start and child care policy, according to a spreadsheet mistakenly made public this week. The document listed more than 150 research projects under consideration for termination by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It covered grants funded by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, which says it “builds evidence to improve lives” by helping policymakers evaluate programs that help low-income children and families. (Foley, 5/2)

Stat: NIH Halts Funding For Research Projects With Foreign Collaborators 
The National Institutes of Health announced Thursday it will no longer allow subawards to foreign institutions, as part of a national security-minded overhaul to how the agency manages its $47 billion research funding portfolio. The change is likely to cause immediate disruptions to research projects around the world. (Molteni, 5/1)

CBS News: RFK Jr. Asks CDC For New Measles Treatment Guidance Amid His Unfounded Claims
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will ask the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop new guidance for treating measles with drugs and vitamins, an HHS spokesperson said. The move comes as Kennedy has faced criticism during this year's record measles outbreaks for remarks misleading people into thinking that measles infections are easily curable and inflating myths about measles vaccines. Vaccination is the only way to prevent the highly infectious disease that can cause serious health complications or death in some cases. (Tin, 5/1)

Stat: Biotech Leaders Decry Trump Disruptions In Health And Science 
At an annual meeting usually focused on the industry’s future, life science leaders couldn’t help but grapple — 100 days into President Trump’s second term — with a present clouded by uncertainty. At Stanford’s Drug Discovery Symposium, biotech bigwigs spoke openly this week about how the scientific ecosystem that trains the industry’s workforce and produces many of the discoveries companies later turn into new drugs and diagnostics is now in jeopardy. (Wosen, 5/1)

Bay Area News Group: Mark Zuckerberg's Philanthropy Quietly Cuts Funding For Affordable Housing, Homelessness Groups
“It’s a blow to the housing justice movement across California,” said Edie Irons, spokesperson for All Home, a nonprofit advocate for solutions to homelessness. “It’s touching many if not all of the most effective housing advocacy organizations across the state.” (Talerico, 5/2)

Times of San Diego: Oceanside Safe Parking Program Supports People Living In Cars
The city of Oceanside has provided resources to 18 households experiencing homelessness since February through its Safe Parking Program. The city, in collaboration with the nonprofit Dreams for Change, set up a secure overnight parking location to host individuals and families who have been forced to live in their cars. ... Those staying at the lot have access to services, including housing navigation, connections to job training, financial literacy education and behavioral health resources. (Caspers, 5/1)

CalMatters: How 2 California Families Found Their Missing Homeless Loved Ones
The last time Julie Crossman saw her little sister, Nanie Crossman, it was 2019 and Nanie was moving out of Julie’s San Francisco apartment, destination unknown. For the next six years, Julie worried — especially every time it rained. She assumed Nanie was homeless, but she had no idea where she was or how to find her. “I just couldn’t sleep at night because I was so scared,” Julie said, her voice breaking. “I was really scared that she was just, like, cold and alone.” (Kendall, 5/1)

Los Angeles Times: Rare Beauty Founder Selena Gomez On Mental Health Access
It’s not often that a beauty brand reshapes how we talk about mental health. But Rare Beauty, founded by Selena Gomez, has done just that — built a mission-driven business where beauty meets purpose, and social impact is more than a bullet point. As a brand, Rare Beauty isn’t just redefining industry standards, it’s reimagining how brands can lead conversations that matter. “The goal was always to bring some sort of mental health access to people in every community because I didn’t have that,” Gomez said at Rare Beauty’s 4th Annual Mental Health Summit. (Kitnick, 5/1)

Los Angeles Times: GOP Has Medicaid In Its Crosshairs
You may have heard some of our federal lawmakers attest to their respect for Medicaid and its generally low-income enrollment base. Listen to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Fox News a couple of weeks ago talking about the need to preserve the state-federal program so it serves “young single mothers down on their fortunes for a moment, the people with real disability, the elderly.” As articulated by Johnson and other GOP lawmakers, this idea seems pretty unexceptionable. Unless, that is, you examine what’s really behind this declaration of service for the less fortunate among us. (Michael Hiltzik, 4/29)

Los Angeles Times: A Medical Researcher Is Wrongly Snagged By Trump's Word Police
Nisha Acharya, an eye doctor and UC San Francisco professor, was at her campus clinic tending patients when a surprising email arrived. Her federal research grant had just been terminated, according to a reporter for the Washington Post, who wondered if Acharya had any comment. She was stunned. Her research, into the workings of the shingles vaccine, didn’t seem remotely controversial. (Mark Z. Barabak, 4/30)

Capitol Weekly: California Can Lead On PFAS Reform—But Not With SB 682
SB 682 seeks to ban the manufacturing, sale, and distribution of any consumer products containing intentionally added PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), including in processes where they are used safely and are considered essential by federal standards. While the intent to protect public health is commendable, the bill’s current language ignores real-world applications and consequences. It casts such a wide net that it would effectively ban a range of products—including some cookware, dental floss, cleaning products, and food packaging—all items which many Californians consider critical to daily life and are vital sectors of our economy. (Lance Hastings, 4/29)

Times of San Diego: To End Homelessness, We Must Invest In Harm Reduction
Homelessness and substance use disorder often occur simultaneously — but many people struggling with both are unable to get the help they need. That puts homeless service providers on the front lines of the battle for reversing overdoses while also trying to end homelessness, one life at a time. As the CEO of Father Joe’s Villages, I’ve seen first-hand how helping someone overcome substance use can lead directly to helping them overcome homelessness. (Deacon Jim Vargas, 4/26)

San Francisco Chronicle: How Two Cupertino Teens Helped To Change Dementia Care In The Bay Area
Nearly 7 million Americans live with dementia-related illnesses,  a figure that’s expected to double by 2050. Those numbers tell a sobering story. Yet in the tech-focused corridors of Santa Clara County, conversations about caregiving and support were once surprisingly muted. Arhan Chakravarthy and Samik Thakur, students at Homestead High School in Cupertino, decided to do something about that. (Tara Sreekrishman, 5/2)