Normal view

The wrong prescription for drug affordability

The Medication Affordability and Patent Integrity Act would create new regulatory burdens on biotech companies, making it harder and taking longer to develop new treatments, while doing nothing to lower prescription drug prices.

The wrong prescription for drug affordability

16 June 2026 at 14:30
The Medication Affordability and Patent Integrity Act would create new regulatory burdens on biotech companies, making it harder and taking longer to develop new treatments, while doing nothing to lower prescription drug prices.

More US states push to ban kratom drink deemed ‘gas-station heroin’

16 June 2026 at 14:00

At least eight states have banned the plant-derived product as more people use it and some claim it’s addictive

In 2024, Maizie Hepner, 24, started visiting a bar in Dubuque, Iowa that did not serve alcohol and instead offered beverages containing kava and kratom, psychoactive substances derived from plants.

The drinks were marketed as “herbal tea mocktails”. Hepner, who works as a server and bartender, said. “I asked the guy who owns” Kava Kava “if it was addictive, and he said, ‘Absolutely not’”.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

© Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

© Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

RFK Jr under fire for ‘bullying’ letter to scientific journal

16 June 2026 at 00:20

Health advocates criticized Kennedy’s move demanding answers from journal that removed ‘flawed’ vaccine study

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, is demanding answers from a medical journal that recently removed a paper suggesting a link between vaccines and infant death, saying their decision was “of great interest to me”.

Public health advocates immediately criticized the move, and said Kennedy appeared to be trying to intimidate and influence the journal’s editorial process. The journal Toxicology Reports had removed the paper this spring after editors determined it was so seriously flawed it could harm patients and pose a risk to public health.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

© Photograph: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

© Photograph: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

❌