Latest News On Prescription Drugs

Latest California Healthline Stories

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Kennedy Cancels Vaccine Funding

The Health and Human Services secretary is winding down nearly $500 million in mRNA research funding, citing false claims that the technology is ineffective against respiratory illnesses — and notching a victory for critics of the covid vaccines. And President Donald Trump is demanding drugmakers drop their prices, quickly, but it’s unclear how he could make them comply. Lauren Weber of The Washington Post, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KFF Health News’ Emmarie Huetteman to discuss these stories and more.

A Revolutionary Drug for Extreme Hunger Offers Clues to Obesity’s Complexity

A new drug is helping families who’ve spent years padlocking fridges, chaining garbage cans, and hiding food as their children with Prader-Willi syndrome deal with unrelenting hunger. But additional progress — and a broader understanding of obesity — is now under threat as the government dismantles the pipeline for promising new research.

Trump Won’t Force Medicaid To Cover GLP-1s for Obesity. A Few States Are Doing It Anyway.

Late last year, South Carolina Medicaid approved a class of medications known as GLP-1s to treat obesity, placing it among the few state programs covering these effective but expensive drugs. But access remains limited, even for patients covered by Medicaid, because of stringent prerequisites that must be satisfied before starting the drug.

Trump Exaggerates Speed and Certainty of Prescription Drug Price Reductions

According to the timeline in the May 12 executive order, prescription drug price reductions would not happen “almost immediately,” but rather could take months or years. And extending the savings to Americans outside federal health insurance programs such as Medicare would likely require congressional action.

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': GOP Tries To Cut Billions in Health Benefits

GOP-controlled House committees approved parts of President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” this week, including more than $700 billion in cuts to health programs over the next decade — mostly from Medicaid, which covers people with low incomes or disabilities. Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before Congress for the first time since taking office and told lawmakers that Americans shouldn’t take medical advice from him. Julie Appleby of KFF Health News, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.