G2G Bio Bulletin – March 23, 2026

Congress

• Healthcare: Committee leaders from both parties have taken actions and floated proposals to address healthcare costs and improve access to medicines.
  • Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) led a letter signed by his Democratic colleagues, outlining several priorities that could evolve into concrete policy proposals, to counter or reverse current Republican policy.
  • House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and the House Appropriations Committee's Labor, Health, and Human Services (LHHS) Subcommittee Chair Robert Aderholt (R-AL) wrote to CMS Administrator Oz requesting that his agency undertake rigorous oversight of insurer and PBM mechanisms like step therapy, prior authorization and clinical appropriateness requirements, that may limit Medicare Part D beneficiaries' access to certain drugs.
• Autism:
  • Thirteen Democratic senators have sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kennedy, demanding that he remove information from the FDA and CDC’s websites on autism and vaccines, they contend is misleading.
  • One of the signees, Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has called on Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA) to convene a hearing on the science of autism to push back against the Secretary’s actions.
• Hearings:
  • On Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee's LHHS Subcommittee held an oversight hearing for NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya. Highlights from the hearing include:
    • Dr. Bhattacharya pushed back against claims that grant disbursements are being delayed. It was noted that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has released funding for NIH and other federal agencies, allowing them to catch up on FY26 grant making, and the Director pledged to spend all allocated funds.
    • Dr. Bhattacharya indicated he would start filling the NIH Director-level vacancies at Institutes, Centers, and Offices within the next month
  • On Wednesday, the House Energy & Commerce (E&C) Committee’s Health Subcommittee held its latest hearing in a series on improving health-care affordability, with this one focusing on providers. The hearing featured witnesses from the American Medical Association and American Hospital Association among others. Key highlights included:
    • E&C Chair Brett Guthrie (R-KY) promised that his committee would address rising costs noting his own family’s experience with expensive medical bills
    • Key themes include consolidation, limited transparency in billing, and the growth of the 340B Drug pricing program
    • Most Democrats focused their remarks on cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and ACA premium tax credits.
    • Other topics discussed included the role of community health centers and independent practices, provider shortages, and access to care in rural areas.
  • On Wednesday, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party convened a hearing on the US pharmaceutical supply chain’s reliance on China. Takeaways include:
    • China is the primary supplier of key starting materials (KSMs) and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for generic drugs, and this has been driven by the Chinese government's industrial policy.
    • The Chinese clinical trial system is more agile than the US's, which has incentivized companies to conduct early-stage trials there, and allowed China to account for almost half of pharmaceutical licensing deals.
    • Policy recommendations: update FDA processes to lower barriers to conducting early-stage trials in the US, incentivize domestic manufacturing of KSMs and APIs,  friend-shoring to and collaboration with allied nations, as well the development and implementation of more deliberate, strategic government industrial policy.