WuXi and BIO’s grip-and-grin

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China tension tests new BIO CEO

When John Crowley took over as BIO’s CEO, all was fine and dandy with WuXi AppTec, which was then a member of the trade group. One of its sister companies even posted a photo on LinkedIn of a handshake between Crowley and the company’s CEO to congratulate Crowley on his new gig, my colleague John Wilkerson reports.

But then, on Crowley’s first day on the job, the chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party asked the Justice Department to investigate whether BIO was lobbying for the Chinese Communist Party. And despite Crowley’s close relationship with WuXi at the company he founded, Amicus Therapeutics, WuXi AppTec left BIO three months later.

BIO executed a dramatic about-face on lawmakers’ proposed restrictions on WuXi — the trade group went from opposing the legislation to supporting it, and ousted its top lobbyist in the process. The crisis has been Crowley’s first big test, and John has the backstory.

Two former HHS secretaries back site-neutral payments

Former HHS secretaries Alex Azar and Kathleen Sebelius are coming out in full-throated support of equalizing Medicare payments between hospital outpatient departments and physicians’ offices in STAT’s opinion section today.

They call the policy, hated by the hospital industry, a “no-brainer” that would align incentives in the industry. They also noted that though they each worked for a different administration, both recommended site-neutral payments.

Are you Del-Aware of what you’re doing?

In case you’re hankering for more news about WuXi, John also reports that Delaware officials are lobbying on a bill that would essentially ban WuXi from doing business in the United States just as the Chinese contract drug manufacturer is about to open a $500 million drugmaking plant in Middleton, Del., according to a fresh lobbying disclosure.

The WuXi facility is a big deal in Delaware. The state gave WuXi STA, a U.S. subsidiary of WuXi AppTec, about $19 million in grants for the project, which is expected to eventually employ about 1,000 people, according to news reports.

The state secretary of Delaware keeps the lobbying firm Tiber Creek on retainer, and the Biosecure Act was added to the topics that the group worked on in the first quarter of this year.Jonathon Jones, a former staffer for Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), is listed as the point person on the policy. The Delaware senator and former governor is a pharma booster and obvious advocate for economic development in his state, but he voted to pass the bill out of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

Delaware hasn’t taken a position on the Biosecure Act, Jones said, and he merely monitored the bill.

Telehealth’s bubble burst

As lawmakers debate what to do about the expiration of expanded telehealth authorities at the end of the year, my colleagues Mario Aguilar and Mohana Ravindranath report on the downfall of industry darling Teladoc.

They break down the departure of the company’s former CEO, who had led the company for 15 years, the precipitous drop in the company’s stock price, and missed profit projections. Ultimately, pandemic-era growth proved unsustainable.

“If you didn’t adopt telemedicine in 2020, what could possibly force you to be a buyer of telemedicine today?” said Barclays managing director Stephanie Davis. Read the full analysis here.

What we’re reading

• UnitedHealth reaffirms financial outlook despite up to $1.6 billion hit from Change Healthcare cyberattack, STAT
• Elevance Health, CD&R to form primary care company, Modern Healthcare
• Eli Lilly’s Zepbound eases obstructive sleep apnea in trials, STAT
• This woman will decide which babies are born, WIRED