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April 17, 2025

Rx Executive Order: Style of Substance

By John Leppard

Despite investor fears of a return of Most Favored Nation (MFN) pricing efforts under Trump, explicit endorsement of such a policy is notably absent from this week’s Executive Order (EO) on drug pricing, despite multiple…

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April 17, 2025

Life Science Tools: NIH Headwinds & Congressional Guardrails

By John Leppard

With press reports indicating that the White House will seek NIH funding cuts of more than 40% in its upcoming FY26 budget release, the overhang on life science tools (LST) names [BRKR, ILMN, AVTR, A,…

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April 16, 2025

Trump Biopharma EO: Laying the Groundwork for Additional Hospital Reconciliation Targets [municipal-backed, HCA, THC, CYH, ARDT, UHS]

By Beth Steindecker

President Trump’s executive order (EO) on biopharma yesterday suggests the hospital sector is a larger target than administration officials have let on to date and seems to proffer more substance about additional ways to garner…

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April 15, 2025

Rx Tariff Timing & Supply Chain Implications

By John Leppard

With the Trump administration announcing its long-anticipated Section 232 pharmaceutical investigation yesterday, laying the foundation for eventual tariffs on the space, we expect this to move much quicker than the typical 232 case (e.g., 2-3…

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April 14, 2025

Medtech & Medicare Inpatient Implications

By John Leppard

Friday’s draft FY26 rate rule for Medicare inpatient hospital services brings incremental benefits for the likes of BSX, DXCM, ABT, and MMSI through proposed endorsement of new technology add-on payments (NTAP) that we expect to…

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April 13, 2025

Vanilla Medicare Inpatient Provider Proposals [HCA, THC, ARDT, EHC, SEM, CHE, ADUS, ENSG, PACS, UHS, ACHC]

By Beth Steindecker

Medicare’s proposed FY26 payment regulations for inpatient hospitals [HCA, THC, CYH, ARDT, UHS, MPW, municipal bond-backed facilities], inpatient rehab facilities (IRFs) [EHC, SEM], hospices [CHE, ADUS, Gentiva], long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) [SEM, Kindred], skilled nursing…

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April 11, 2025

DC Quick Takes: Trade, Reconciliation/Taxes and Elections

By Joe Lieber

We want to let you know that we are working to set up a trade /tariff conference call for next Wednesday, so keep an eye on your inbox for details.   Below are some quick…

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April 10, 2025

[CVS, CI, UNH]: Senate Confirmation of 3rd FTC Commissioner Allows for Future Resumption of PBM Litigation

By Beth Steindecker

Today’s successful Senate confirmation of Mark Meador to join the FTC as a commissioner paves the way for the FTC to officially resume its antitrust litigation against the pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) [CVS, CI, UNH,…

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April 9, 2025

Trade and Tariff Update and Conference Call Takeaways

By Joe Lieber

We had a conference call on Monday with a former Trump official and give our takeaways and out updated view on tariffs below. Click here for a link to the conference call transcript and audio…

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April 8, 2025

Defense Spending Update: Trump Call for ~$1 Trillion for FY26

By Joe Lieber

Recent developments buttress our expectation for an increase in defense spending. A few weeks ago, we told investors when the Trump administration seemingly called for an 8% cut in defense spending that we thought Congress…

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