News from Thursday, April 23, 2026
Articles
Trump’s Drug Pricing Policy Deprives Patients in Europe of New Treatments
(4/23, Gerry Smith, Ashleigh Furlong, Fabienne Kinzelmann, Bloomberg) reports “...Introducing a treatment in Europe could end up halving the product’s US price under the policy dubbed ‘most favored nation,’ according to Darius Lakdawalla, chief scientific officer at the USC Schaeffer Institute. ‘Would a drug company be willing to walk away from that market in favor of preserving over 30% of their US profits?’ Lakdawalla said. ‘My guess is they almost certainly would.’...The research firm GlobalData, which tracks new drug launches in Europe, found a 35% decline in the 10 months after Trump’s drug pricing announcement last May, compared to the prior 10 months. The drop was even steeper when the analysts focused on the countries the US policy relies on for comparison.” Subscription Required
Dems Want Details, Republican Rebuffs White House Call To Codify TrumpRx
(4/22, Jessica Karins, Inside Health Policy) reports “...[Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC)] asked why the administration is not pushing for a universal MFN bill, rather than agreements with specific companies, if it views the approach as successful. Kennedy said the agreements are all different based on differences between the companies. Asked by Tillis how agreements that are unique to each company could be codified, Kennedy said Klomp is working on legislative language now. Lawmakers, however, remain unsatisfied with the information they have on the White House’s deals.” Subscription Required
Minnesota's 340B Hospitals Make One Billion More From 340B Than They Spend on Uncompensated Care
(4/23, Bryce Platt, PharmD, Drug Channels) comments “...In 2024, nonprofit hospitals generated more than $1.3 billion in 340B net profits-nearly a billion dollars more than they provided in uncompensated care. At the same time, these same institutions already benefit from substantial tax exemptions tied to their not-for-profit status and charitable mission. The gap between 340B profits and charity care isn't a rounding error or a one-off anomaly. The 340B Drug Pricing Program has evolved into a significant profit center for hospital systems. This is another layer on top of existing public subsidies, not a substitute for them.” Full
Saudi Food and Drug Authority Finalizes Real-World Evidence Framework to Support Regulatory Decision-Making
(4/23, Katie McCool, The Evidence Base) reports “...Several regulatory use cases for RWE are outlined. These include supporting hypothesis generation during early drug development, informing statistical assumptions, and evaluating outcomes in populations that may be under-represented in randomized studies. The framework also highlights the use of RWD as external comparators in single-arm trials, noting that ‘historical and external controls may be used in single-arm trials to develop orphan drugs when clinical trials are not feasible or unethical in the proposed settings.’” Full
Press Releases
USC and Tempus AI Partner to Advance Precision Medicine
(4/23, Keck School of Medicine of USC Press Release) “...The new framework intends to create an ongoing cycle of learning between patient care and research, with a primary goal of improving outcomes for the more than 1.5 million annual patient visits to Keck Medicine of USC hospitals and clinics. It is designed to promote more personalized and precise care to patients across the Keck Medicine of USC health system with tailored recommendations informed by large-scale clinical data. At the same time, it seeks to use clinical data to inform and accelerate research to develop innovative therapies and algorithms that may translate for public benefit.” Full
Bright Uro Launches Glean® Patient Registry to Create Urodynamic Intelligence™
(4/23, Bright Uro Press Release) “...The Glean Registry will help build a comprehensive data repository, enabling the company to generate meaningful insights for clinicians treating patients across the entire range of LUTD, including overactive bladder (OAB), stress urinary incontinence (SUI), benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), and neurogenic LUTD (NLUTD). Enrollment into the Registry is actively underway for current Glean users.” Full
SamaCare Launches First-of-Its-Kind Benchmarks for Medical Benefit Prior Authorization Performance
(4/23, SamaCare Press Release) “...While prior authorization plays a critical role in determining whether and when patients start treatment, historically, there has been limited transparency into the impact of these processes on patient access to care. SamaCare's benchmarks address this gap by aggregating and analyzing the largest real-world dataset of medical benefit prior authorizations in the United States. ‘Prior authorization is one of the most important and least understood barriers to patient access,’ said Syam Palakurthy, CEO and Founder of SamaCare. ‘By making this data visible, we're giving the industry a clearer picture of where delays occur, how approval rates vary, and what it takes to improve access to therapy.’” Full
Journals
Comparative Effectiveness of Physical Interventions for Preventing Perineal Trauma During Vaginal Delivery: A Systematic Review and Bayesian Network Meta-Analysis
Linli Xu, et al.
April 7, 2026, Frontiers in Medicine
Rabbit Antithymocyte Globulin vs Basiliximab Induction in ABO-Incompatible Kidney Transplantation: A Single-Center Retrospective Cohort Study
Eunju Jang, et al.
April 21, 2026, Transplantation Proceedings