addiction
What’s the deadliest drug?
Hint: You drink it. It’s commonplace. Sometimes it pairs well with red meat, sometimes with lighter fare, depending on the type. I often buy it in units of six.
The Deadliest Drug is the name of an investigative series by Isabella Cueto and Lev Facher about the nation’s failure to address excessive alcohol use, which is a leading cause of disease, injury, and death.
The first installments of the series dropped this morning. It’s a banger. Isa and Lev set the stage with a rundown on alcohol’s financial and societal costs. They detail the failure of successive presidents to diminish alcohol’s harms and explain how personal the ravages of drinking are to President Trump and health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Dive in.
drug pricing
19,000
That’s how many people have used TrumpRx to find lower prices for fertility treatments, according to Trump.
He provided that number during a White House event on maternal health care. The main point of the event was to announce a new proposed rule aimed at making it easier for employers to offer in vitro fertilization services much in the way they offer dental and vision benefits.
Daniel Payne has been requesting TrumpRx performance metrics for months. He hasn’t received a response, but the mention of 19,000 people finding cheaper fertility treatments suggests the administration knows how many people are using TrumpRx for each drug on the website.
Trump complained that the press isn’t doing enough to advertise his site.
“A lot of people don’t realize it’s available,” Trump said.
“Only one in three Americans know what TrumpRx.gov does,” CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said.
opioids
What is ‘natural’ 7-OH?
If you paid close attention to the White House event, you might’ve heard Trump make a side comment about “natural 7-OH.”
What is natural 7-OH? What does Trump want to do with it? Do Trump’s comments run counter to his administration’s prior actions on the opioid derived from the naturally occurring kratom plant?
Lev has you covered.
fda
Odd timing
There have been several articles, and about a million xeets, saying that FDA Commissioner Marty Makary is about to be dismissed.
Makary was supposed to give an address and jog with staff at an annual FDA 5K run at the FDA campus on Friday. But Lizzy Lawrence reports that he was absent. He wasn’t at the White House event on maternal health care on Monday, either, while Oz and Kennedy attended. But he’s still listed as the witness at a Senate subcommittee hearing tomorrow on the president’s budget request for the agency.
As of the writing of this newsletter (Monday evening), no dismissal had been announced.
