WuXi Biologics beefs up its lobbying operation

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Michelle McMurry-Heath re-emerges

Former BIO CEO Michelle McMurry-Heath has laid low since October 2022, following her abrupt exit from the organization. Recently, she’s re-emerged at some health care events with a new job title.

McMurry-Heath moderated a panel on diversity in clinical trials at the recent Milken Institute Global Conference, and her title was listed as “Founder and CEO of BioTechquity Clinical.” The outfit is described in her speaker bio as “a novel clinical research organization designed to help drug and device innovators enroll and conduct diverse clinical trials” that helps clients find “previously untapped diverse middle class patient partners.” She is also slated to moderate a National Academy of Medicine event next month and is identified as being affiliated with the same organization.

There doesn’t appear to be much of a digital footprint of an organization under the name BioTechquity Clinical. There’s no website, no social media profiles, and no publicly available business or nonprofit filings, but there is a patent office filing for a trademark for the term “biotechquity.” McMurry-Heath did not respond to an emailed inquiry about the organization.

WuXi Biologics beefs up its lobbying operation

The same quarter that the House Oversight Committee passed a bill blacklisting the company in the United States, WuXi Biologics registered its own executives to lobby Congress for the first time, my colleague John Wilkerson writes.

The filing is a signal that the company is taking the House’s progress seriously. House Oversight has more legislative authority than the chamber’s select committee on China, which had previously handled the BIOSECURE Act. An updated version of the bill also explicitly named WuXi Biologics as implicated by the legislation, which hadn’t been defined before.

John’s got all the details about the executives the company tapped to be its official emissaries to the Hill — including an ex-PhRMA lobbyist.

HHS brings the hammer down on EcoHealth

Following scrutiny from the House of Representatives, HHS has chosen to suspend federal grants issued to EcoHealth Alliance, the infectious disease research group caught up in a controversy over its work in China, and plans to bar it from receiving future funding, my co-author Sarah Owermohle reports.

The decision follows a back-and-forth about a two-year delay in the organization filing its 2019 report to the NIH. The typical length of debarment is three years, but HHS in a letter hints it could be longer.

E&C marks up telehealth bill

The House Energy & Commerce’s health subcommittee was set to mark up a permanent extension of some pandemic-era Medicare telehealth policies, but the panel amended the measure at the markup to only extend the policies for two years.

That’s in line with the Ways & Means Committee, which unanimously passed a two-year extension earlier this month. The panel also chose similar offsets on PBMs as Ways & Means. A permanent change will be much more expensive, and multiple sources have told me and my colleague Mario Aguilar that the chances of a permanent extension this year are very, very slim.

The black market for raw milk

Last Friday, STAT’s Nick Florko engaged in a clandestine meetup with a man in a black minivan in front of a million-plus-dollar home in D.C. to buy an illegal substance.

He was buying raw milk, which is technically illegal in D.C. But the FDA hasn’t cracked down on a loophole sellers have found by selling the liquid as “pet milk.” Drinking raw milk has become a practice of greater concern now that the H5N1 bird flu virus is infecting dairy cows.

Studies have so far shown that pasteurized milk is safe to drink, but raw milk isn’t pasteurized. And devotees of raw milk seemed undeterred by the chance of illness. The full, rollicking story is a Nick classic, and well worth your time.

What we’re reading

• Lawmaker accuses Amgen of placing profits above patients with dosing for a cancer drug, STAT
• Hospitals’ new message for patients: Stay home, Politico
• The White House hikes tariffs on Chinese medical products, STAT
• Why Medicaid’s ‘Undercount’ Problem Counts, KFF Health News

Note: This newsletter has been updated to reflect an amendment to telehealth legislation by the Energy & Commerce Committee and a patent office filing.