STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re reading about a NIH patent freeze, the Senate hearing for new FDA chief, and more

A happy Friday to you from STAT’s London outpost, ending a week in which the sun decided to finally come back after a few gloomy months. But we here in the U.K. are jealous of those of you in the U.S. with your impending Spring Forward this weekend, as we have to wait another three weeks before we move our clocks ahead. Oh well, nothing another cup of stimulation (or perhaps a pint at the pub) can’t fix. Onto the news. …

For the past five weeks, employees at National Institutes of Health technology transfer offices have been barred from filing new patent applications and been restricted from licensing existing ones, STAT reports. It’s a result of clampdowns on external communications and new contracts at the agency that are blocking it from sharing research materials with collaborators and taking crucial steps to ensure the discoveries its own scientists are making can later be used in the development of drugs and vaccines. “Being such a huge place of research, there was so much going on and a lot was already falling through the cracks,” one NIH patent specialist who was recently laid off said.

Marty Makary, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration, played the Make America Healthy Again movement’s greatest hits at his Senate confirmation hearing, but faced little pressure from senators to talk about many basic FDA policy issues, STAT writes. On a FDA vaccine advisory committee meeting that was suddenly canceled, Makary promised to “take a look at it” but did not commit to holding the meeting. He also said he would continue reviewing the data on whether it’s safe to prescribe the abortion drug mifepristone remotely, and to look for potential “drug-drug interactions.” He maintained that he had no preconceived notions on how best to regulate the drug. (For a full recap of the hearing, here’s STAT’s live blog.) 

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