By Megan R. Wilson

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In today’s issue:

• The White House continues its search for a new CDC leader; while the vice chair of an influential federal vaccine advisory panel resigns
• FDA chief said AI will cut down on initial review time of new drug applications
• A Trump administration proposal to overhaul Obamacare coverage could leave providers picking up the tab.

Welcome to the Health Brief newsletter. We’re halfway through the week, but still so far to go.

Do you have any health policy tips or industry intel for me? Do you handle regulatory affairs for a drug company? Reach out. I’m at megan.wilson@washpost.com. If you prefer to message me securely, I’m also on Signal at megan.434.

This newsletter is published by WP Intelligence, The Washington Post’s subscription service for professionals that provides business, policy and thought leaders with actionable insights. WP Intelligence operates independently from The Washington Post newsroom. Learn more about WP Intelligence.

FILE — A sign with the CDC logo is displayed at the entrance to the agency's headquarters in Atlanta on March 2, 2025. (Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)

	The Lead Brief

The Trump administration’s public health agenda is potentially at an inflection point as President Donald Trump mulls who to nominate to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a key member of the influential federal vaccine advisory panel resigned his role.

— The newest development is that the White House is holding off naming its CDC pick, according to my colleagues Lena H. Sun, Rachel Roubein and Dan Diamond in The Post’s newsroom.

Jay Bhattacharya, the head of the National Institutes of Health, will continue to lead the agency informally, although he will no longer be able to hold the title of acting director per a federal law that limits how long a person can hold an acting post. He’s been pulling double duty, and serving as the interim leader of CDC since last month.

Administration officials had been working toward a goal of selecting a nominee before Bhattacharya’s appointment as acting director expired, but are continuing the search.

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Read the full story: “White House holds off on CDC pick as search for permanent chief continues.”

Robert Malone, a prominent critic of coronavirus vaccines, resigned from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, over the weekend. The panel is in legal purgatory as a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s immunization policy changes works its way through the courts.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last year replaced all the members of the panel, with his own picks. A federal judge recently sided with medical groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, which have legally challenged the rollbacks to vaccine recommendations and Kennedy’s ACIP overhaul.

The groups accused Kennedy of “inappropriately” influencing ACIP, which makes recommendations to CDC on vaccine policy, by packing it with some individuals “with histories of taking anti-vaccine positions.”

Malone talked to my WaPo colleague Lauren Weber on Tuesday evening about his decision to step down from ACIP.

"It's incredibly stressful, endless hours, no compensation,” Malone told Lauren on Tuesday evening. The gig comes with “a constant stream of hate from the professional societies,” he said.

Roll Call first reported Malone’s resignation.

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The move comes after a federal judge temporarily paused parts of the administration’s vaccine overhaul earlier this month.

In his decision, Judge Brian E. Murphy wrote that the federal government’s unilateral sweeping changes to the childhood vaccination schedule announced in January, which reduced the recommended number of shots from 17 to 11 for all children, improperly bypassed the federal vaccine advisory committee.

Murphy also wrote that some of Kennedy’s picks to sit on ACIP “appear distinctly unqualified” to handle issues related to the use of vaccines.

Following the decision, Malone wrote on social media that Murphy “must be impeached,” calling him a “rogue judge.”

Why it matters: The uncertainty at the CDC and its vaccine advisory panel is happening at a pivotal moment for the administration’s public health agenda.

Ahead of November’s midterm elections, the Trump administration is trying to balance the interests of followers of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement with the views of other Americans who are uneasy about the government’s sweeping changes to vaccine policy.

	Executive Health Brief

Pharmaceutical companies will be able to see whether new drug applications meet federal review standards in minutes instead of months as regulators increase their uptake of artificial intelligence, said Marty Makary, who leads the Food and Drug Administration, at an industry conference Wednesday.

“We are reducing the R & D costs, which translates to lower drug prices,” Makary said at a forum held by AHIP, a main health insurance industry group. He said the FDA had previously taken months just to “check that the [drug] application is complete,” but noted that the agency is “modernizing.”

“Our scientists now have AI,” Makary said. “In the next few weeks, we're going to announce that we're going to officially use AI to cut that filing period from two months to two minutes. That's two months off of every potential cure.”

→ I asked the Department for Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, for more information about the plans.

“The FDA’s two-month filing period is not a scientific review” of the new product, “it is merely a procedural check to confirm that the application is complete,” HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon explained.

“Using technology and AI, this tedious and perfunctory step can be reliably conducted in minutes, as demonstrated in a successful, high-fidelity pilot” that is part of a “broader modernization initiative” by the agency, Nixon said.

→ Makary has been widely touting FDA efforts to streamline the approval of new drugs over the last several months in interviews and on social media. On Wednesday, he called out two cancer drugs that recently received approval from regulators in less than two months through a controversial priority voucher program. 

Mark your calendar: The FDA will be having a public meeting in June to take feedback on the program.

Meanwhile, investors, biotech companies and patient advocacy groups have alleged the FDA has shifted the goalposts during the approval process and expressed frustration with unpredictable standards and requests from regulators.

	WP Intel File

The latest report from my WP Intelligence colleague Rebecca Adams examines the Trump administration’s ambitious efforts to overhaul the Obamacare marketplace for people who purchase insurance themselves.

Brace yourself: She notes there are major consequences for insurers, hospitals and consumers set to take effect as soon as 2027.

→ The changes would loosen the Affordable Care Act’s requirements for health insurance coverage, including key proposals that would allow bare-bones catastrophic coverage for more consumers. Regulators are also proposing for the first time, permit plans without networks of doctors and hospitals to be sold on the Obamacare marketplaces.

• Although the proposed rule is designed to reduce premiums, the cost savings may be unevenly distributed. Consumers who do not get federal subsidies are those that are most likely to save any money, but the administration estimates the proposal could lead up to 2 million people to lose their insurance.
• Instead, hospitals and doctors could be stuck with the bill. Expanded catastrophic and nonnetwork plans could increase unpaid medical bills as consumers encounter coverage gaps they didn’t anticipate — a risk that provider groups flagged directly to federal officials.

What to watch: Legal challenges are likely. Some experts say allowing nonnetwork plans may conflict with the text of the 2010 law, and opponents are already signaling they may push back.

Read the full report: “Trump administration is overhauling Obamacare without Congress.”

	What We’re Reading

“Demoralized CDC Workforce Reels From Year of Firings, Funding Cuts, and a Shooting,” WABE’s Jess Mador writes in KFF Health News.

“CVS, FTC reach proposed settlement in insulin pricing case,” Rebecca Pifer Parduhn writes for Healthcare Dive.