Washington Roundup: June 14, 2024

The Washington Post reports,

• “The Biden administration Tuesday [June 11] announced rules to block medical debt from being used to evaluate borrowers’ fitness for mortgages and other types of loans.”
• “The proposed rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau arrive less than five months before Election Day and are poised to be part of President Biden’s closing argument that he is addressing pocketbook issues as voters rank the economy as their top concern. The White House has repeatedly focused on the issue of medical debt, saying it disproportionately harms low-income Americans and communities of color. * * *
• The proposed rules “can have a meaningful effect,” said Neale Mahoney, a Stanford University economist who has studied medical debt and served on the White House National Economic Council before leaving a year ago. He pointed to recent findings by the Urban Institute that medical debt affects the credit scores of at least 5 percent of Americans.
• But Mahoney, citing his own research, noted that many people who carry medical debt also “have other flags on their credit report” that can make it hard for them to get loans even when medical debt is addressed.

• Read today’s proposed rule, Prohibition on Creditors and Consumer Reporting Agencies Concerning Medical Information (Regulation V).
• Read the Unofficial Redline of the Prohibition on Creditors and Consumer Reporting Agencies Concerning Medical Information (Regulation V) .
• Comments must be received on or before August 12, 2024.

Per BioPharma Dive,

• “An experimental and closely watched medicine for Alzheimer’s disease is one step closer to approval, after receiving support from a panel of experts who advise the Food and Drug Administration. “An experimental and closely watched medicine for Alzheimer’s disease is one step closer to approval, after receiving support from a panel of experts who advise the Food and Drug Administration.
• “On Monday, the panel unanimously voted that the medicine, developed by Eli Lilly and known as donanemab, appears to be an effective treatment for certain Alzheimer’s patients. The experts also concluded, by an 11-0 vote, that the drug’s benefits outweigh its risks, despite some safety concerns.

“I thought the evidence is very strong and the trials [show] the effectiveness of the drug,” said Dean Follman, a panelist and assistant director of biostatistics at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.”

• The Wall Street Journal reports,
  • “Big tobacco companies and their critics agree on at least one thing: The illegal, fruit-flavored, disposable vapes that are popular among teenagers have flooded the U.S. market and federal regulators haven’t done enough to stop it.
  • “The Food and Drug Administration and Justice Department said Monday they are stepping up enforcement by forming a multiagency task force to go after the illegal distribution and sale of e-cigarettes.
  • “Disposable vaping devices, almost none of which are authorized for sale by the FDA, represent more than 30% of U.S. e-cigarette sales in stores tracked by Nielsen, according to an analysis by Goldman Sachs. Many of them are imported from China. Breeze Pro and Elfbar, both of which were ordered off the market last year by the FDA, remain the top two disposable e-cigarette brands in the U.S.”