This week’s Friday Five highlights National Family Caregivers Month—led by the Caregiver Action Network— and shines a spotlight on caregivers’ daily challenges, celebrates their unwavering dedication, and connects them with vital resources and support.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced significant action to make it faster and less costly to develop biosimilar medicines, which are lower-cost “generic” alternatives to biologic drugs that treat serious and chronic diseases. In a new draft guidance, the FDA proposes major updates to simplify biosimilarity studies and reduce unnecessary clinical testing.
From KFF Health News Network – Their latest podcast, What the Health, It’s not yet clear how the federal government shutdown will end, but Democrats are continuing to draw attention to the issue they are promoting — the coming expiration of additional subsidies for Affordable Care Act insurance plans. Some Republicans are now going public with their worries about the huge cost increases many of their constituents face.
From KFF Health News Network – Their latest podcast, What the Health, Fired less than a month after being confirmed as head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Susan Monarez appeared at a dramatic Senate hearing alongside another ousted CDC official and directly contradicted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s earlier testimony about why she was fired.
From KFF Health News Network – Their latest podcast, What the Health, Just days after his firing of the brand-new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a defiant Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. secretary of health and human services, defended that action and others before a sometimes skeptical Senate Finance Committee.
The Health Resources and Services Administration released new data showing HRSA-funded health centers served over 32.4 million patients in 2024 — the most patients ever served in the Health Center Program’s 60-year history.
This program is designed to support communities severely affected by homelessness and to gain insights on effective ways to identify patients, complete treatment, cure infections, and reduce reinfection by Hepatitis C (a liver disease caused by the Hepatitis C virus).
By Rachana Pradhan – For more than a decade, a small team of people at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention worked to do just that, issuing national guidelines for clinicians on how to prescribe contraception safely for millions of women with underlying medical conditions — including heart disease, lupus, sickle cell disease, and obesity.
From KFF Health News Network – Their latest podcast, What the Health, Speaking before a live audience on June 23 at Aspen Ideas: Health in Colorado, three former governors — one of whom also served as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services — discussed what it would take to make the nation’s health care system run more smoothly.
This initiative represents a decisive shift toward transparency, effectiveness, and comprehensive preparedness, funding the NIH’s in-house development of universal influenza and coronavirus vaccines, including candidates BPL-1357 and BPL-24910.
From KFF Health News Network – Their latest podcast, What the Health, After narrowly passing a budget resolution this spring foreshadowing major Medicaid cuts, Republicans in Congress are having trouble agreeing on specific ways to save billions of dollars from a pool of funding that pays for the program without cutting benefits on which millions of Americans rely.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a series of new measures to phase out all petroleum-based synthetic dyes from the nation’s food supply—a significant milestone in the administration’s broader initiative to Make America Healthy Again.
©2025 Answers Media Company, LLC