By Megan R. Wilson

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In today’s issue: The administration makes its initial drug-pricing pitch to Republicans on Capitol Hill. … Sign up for WP Intelligence’s Friday briefing exploring changes at the Food and Drug Administration. … Some RFK Jr.’s new picks to a federal autism advisory board have a history of vaccine skepticism. … And more.

Happy Thursday, and welcome to Health Brief. The week is almost over, and we could be seeing a partial government shutdown this weekend.

But my Washington Post colleagues Riley Beggin and Theodoric Meyer have your update on the talks between Democrats and the White House to cut a deal on government funding. It comes following a failed vote in the Senate to pass the funding package amid disagreements about the bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security.

→ Read Riley and Rachel Lerman’s story on what would stay open during a partial shutdown.

Send story tips and health policy intel and strategy to megan.wilson@washpost.com. If you prefer to message me securely, I’m also on Signal at megan.434.

This newsletter is published by WP Intelligence, The Washington Post’s subscription service for professionals that provides business, policy and thought leaders with actionable insights. WP Intelligence operates independently from the Washington Post newsroom. Learn more about WP Intelligence.

Mehmet Oz, who leads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has been dispatched to sell Capitol Hill Republicans on the administration's drug pricing pitch. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

	The Lead Brief

The Trump administration is launching a charm offensive to get skeptical Republicans on board with turning the White House’s drug-pricing push into law, sending the affable Mehmet Oz to lead the effort on Capitol Hill.

Oz, the doctor and former television host who now leads the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and other top officials huddled with Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday afternoon to discuss President Donald Trump’s so-called Great Healthcare Plan.

But the main problem remains that the administration still has no concrete strategy behind executing the most complex aspects of the plan, according to two people directly familiar with the discussion who were granted anonymity to provide details about the private briefing.

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Most of the discussion — which also included Chris Klomp, the director of Medicare and another well-liked administration figure — centered around codifying the main aspects of deals the administration cut with more than a dozen drugmakers.

Those deals involve policies that require pharmaceutical companies to lower their prices in line with what other countries pay, known as most-favored nation (MFN) policies — and codifying them could lump in other companies that hadn’t made deals.

However, regulators came with no suggested legislative text, urging congressional staff to figure out a way to write it while they offered to provide technical support.

Why it matters: Most of the Trump administration’s drug-pricing deals — which came after Trump demanded that 17 companies lower their prices to align with peer nations — were announced at the White House over several months last year, most with great fanfare.

As more Americans note the cost of health care being their top concern, finding solutions has been top of mind for policymakers during the 2026 midterm election year — and the Trump administration is looking to capitalize.

But it’s not clear that the MFN drug-pricing deals will translate into meaningful savings for patients — or that there is even enough support to move any legislative proposals. What’s more, the idea of turning the voluntary agreements into law is giving some drugmakers heartburn.

READ MORE FROM WAPO: “The cost of health care, not food or rent, is now Americans’ top worry,” Peter Whoriskey writes at The Washington Post.

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	Health on the Hill

While the people with direct knowledge of the briefing described the tone among senators as neutral — with no one being overtly positive or negative about the proposals — there was some skepticism about the pharmaceutical industry’s support for the measures.

One of the industry’s top trade associations, the well-heeled Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, has come out strongly against the idea of codifying the deals, opposing what it refers to as “price controls.”

The administration informed senators that the drug companies would be supportive, and argued that it would be better to turn MFN drug pricing policies into law now so that it couldn’t be abused by a future Democratic administration.

Trump administration officials communicated that some individual drugmakers have indicated they would help work on a proposal, according to a third person directly familiar with the discussion.

However, four major drugmakers told me on Thursday they would not support any codification of MFN policies. The incoming CEO of Takeda — which was not asked by Trump to make a drug pricing deal with the administration — said she doesn’t support the MFN “approach,” Endpoints News reported Thursday.

“Having price controls and importing one component of health care systems that have very, very different structures does not make sense for the U.S.,” Takeda’s CEO-elect Julie Kim said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call.

The White House, Department of Health and Human Services and CMS did not respond to an inquiry about the briefing, what was discussed and what the preferred next steps are.

→ The White House’s Theo Merkel and Pace McMullan were in attendance, as well as legislative officials from HHS Gary Andres and Courtney Bradway. From CMS, Stephanie Carlton, the agency’s chief of staff, and top CMS communications official Chris Krepich attended.

THE DOCTOR WILL SEE YOU NOW

“If the admin is smart and wants people to feel comfortable and do something on health care, send Oz,” said one of the people directly familiar with the briefing. “It helps that everyone just likes him.”

Oz made sure to shake every staffer’s hand before the briefing. At one point, he gave up his prime seat to one staffer to see the screen better. Klomp, the person said, is also “a very good salesperson.”

That said, the opening salvo with Capitol Hill may not have been all that effective.

“If they were looking for a vote of confidence that members were going to tell their colleagues this was a great idea, I didn’t get the sense that’s what’s going to happen now,” the person added.

The second person familiar with the discussion added that a MFN drug-pricing proposal may be able to garner support among Republicans if “something logical” was put forward along with a viable pathway to passage, but that hasn’t yet emerged.

	WP Intel File

The Trump administration has been making its mark on the Food and Drug Administration and attempting to overhaul how it approves new drugs. To learn more, tune in Friday morning to a WP Intelligence briefing that will feature a conversation with WP Intelligence lead health care analyst Rebecca Adams and former FDA commissioner Robert Califf.

Some of the main topics for discussion will include:

• How the FDA’s approach to approving new medicines is evolving, and why
• What shifting evidentiary standards could mean for drug and medical device development, and time to market
• How vaccine review and approval may change, and the implications for public health and industry confidence

→ The briefing is at 11 a.m. Friday, so sign up here to get your (virtual) seat.

	Executive Health Brief

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has named 21 people to a key federal autism advisory board, including some who have promoted debunked claims linking vaccines to autism and advocating for unproven treatments, The Post’s Ariana Eunjung Cha reports.

→ At least eight of the new additions have been involved with anti-vaccine organizations or questioned vaccine safety. The panel, called the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, was founded in 2000 and helps develop strategic plans for autism research and services.

The appointments, HHS said, reflect Kennedy’s “commitment” to “support breakthrough innovations in autism research, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention by bringing the nation’s understanding of and policies concerning autism into alignment with gold-standard science.”

Meanwhile, Alison Singer, the president of the Autism Science Foundation who previously served on the panel, criticized the picks.

The move “undermines decades of progress toward evidence-based policy,” Singer told Ariana.

→ Make sure to read her report for more details on the new additions.

	Agency alert

— Authored by Paige Winfield Cunningham in The Washington Post newsroom.

Top CMS officials announced new measures Thursday that they claim will help Medicaid enrollees easily comply with new community engagement requirements included in Republicans’ sweeping tax-and-domestic policy law enacted last year.

The new key policy is to ensure that people who are already complying with work requirements in the SNAP federal food assistance program won’t have to separately verify their work in order to enroll in Medicaid.

→ Verification is “going to happen behind the scenes because the systems are going to start talking to each other, which has never happened before,” said Dan Brillman, the director of Medicaid and CHIP.

Why it matters: It’s an effort to push back against fears that the new work requirements will cause millions of otherwise-eligible people to fall off the Medicaid rolls. About 6.2 million Americans are eligible for Medicaid and SNAP, according to the Congressional Research Service.

CMS also announced agreements with 10 health technology companies that have already contracted with state Medicaid programs. The companies include Accenture, Acentra Health, Deloitte, Gainwell, Maximus, Optum and RedMane.

The companies have pledged to provide states with free and discounted products and services to help them implement the new work requirements, which apply to people covered under Medicaid expansion.

	What We’re Reading

“An infection liquefied a man’s lungs. This invention kept him alive.,” Mark Johnson reports at The Washington Post.

“A meeting with RFK Jr. set off recriminations inside doctors’ lobbying arm,” Simon J. Levien reports at Politico.

“Trump and allies at odds over COVID shots,” Caitlin Owens reports for Axios.

“AstraZeneca strengthens China ties with planned $15B investment,” Kristin Jensen writes for BioPharma Dive.