- The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced plans to overhaul the country’s organ transplant system. HRSA said it will focus on accountability and transparency by seeking more contracts to operate the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network and sharing data more transparently. The system has only ever been managed by the nonprofit United Network for Organ Sharing, which has been recently criticized for its handling of organs, long waitlists for transplants, and the number of deaths among people waiting: about 6,000 per year. There are currently more than 100,000 people in the United States waiting for an organ transplant. (Articles here, here, and here; Press release here)
- Yesterday, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel defended the company’s plans to raise the price of its COVID vaccine at a Senate hearing, saying the move is necessary because its government funding will soon end. Bancel told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions that the drugmaker will charge a list price of around $130 per dose for the vaccine in the U.S. The government paid around $15 per dose in 2020 and more than $26 last summer for Moderna’s bivalent booster, according to an analysis by the non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation. (Articles here, here, here, here, and here)
March 23, 2023
D.C. News | Tea Leaves