CER Daily Newsfeed

Top F.D.A. Official Resigns Under Pressure

(7/29, Christina Jewett, The New York Times) ...Andrew Nixon, a Department of Health and Human Services spokesman, confirmed the resignation Tuesday evening. ‘Dr. Prasad did not want to be a distraction to the great work of the F.D.A. in the Trump administration and has decided to return to California and spend more time with his family,’ Mr. Nixon said in a statement. ‘We thank him for his service and the many important reforms he was able to achieve in his time at F.D.A.’” Subscription Required

Apple, Google, OpenAI to Work With Feds to Make Health Data Helpful

(7/30, Rachel Cohrs Zhang, John Tozzi, Bloomberg) reports “Leading US technology companies, including Amazon.com Inc., Anthropic, Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and OpenAI Inc., have pledged to work with health systems and the Trump administration to make the nation’s fragmented medical data more useful for patients and providers...As a voluntary initiative, it’s unclear what the consequences are for companies that don’t follow through on their commitments. They agreed to ‘deliver results’ by the first quarter of 2026, the agency said.” Subscription Required

England’s NICE Hunts For New Chief As Sam Roberts Prepares To Step Down

(7/30, Eliza Slawther, Pink Sheet) reports “...Sam Roberts, chief executive of the health technology assessment institute, NICE, will step down from her role at the end of the year. The agency is now on the lookout for a new leader, who will be the fourth in its history.” Subscription Required

NICE Backs AstraZeneca’s Dual Immunotherapy for Advanced Liver Cancer

(7/30, John Pinching, PharmaTimes) reports “...AstraZeneca has received a positive recommendation from NICE for the use of Imfinzi (durvalumab) with Imjudo (tremelimumab) in adults with advanced or unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The decision marks the first NICE approval of a dual immunotherapy for liver cancer in the UK.” Full