• Paul Wolfowitz, writing in the Wall Street Journal, shares “Reflections on Lincoln 160 Years After His Murder. America’s greatest president had moral vision, strategic genius, and astounding eloquence.” RIP.
  • “Tuesday is the 160th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. That grim milestone invites speculation about what might have been had he lived to serve out his second term. It is also an occasion to reflect on what made Lincoln great—why his example still matters.
  • “Lincoln is the greatest American president not because he was perfect, but because he had so many leadership qualities crucial for confronting the challenges facing him. He combined moral vision with strategic genius, a rare mix for any political leader.” * * *
  • “So, I am grateful to Providence that we had a leader of Lincoln’s stature at a time of our greatest need. And so should we all be.”

From Washington, DC,

• From an FTC news release,
  • “Today, the Federal Trade Commission launched a public inquiry into the impact of federal regulations on competition, with the goal of identifying and reducing anticompetitive regulatory barriers. The FTC launched this inquiry in response to President Trump’s Executive Order on Reducing Anticompetitive Regulatory Barriers. * * *
  • “In a Request for Information, the FTC invites members of the public to comment on how federal regulations can harm competition in the American economy. The RFI seeks to understand what federal regulations have an anticompetitive effect. Members of the public—including consumers, workers, businesses, start-ups, potential market entrants, investors, and academics—are encouraged to comment.
  • “The public will have 40 days to submit comments at Regulations.gov, no later than May 27, 2025. Once submitted, comments will be posted to Regulations.gov.
  • “Comments submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice Anticompetitive Regulations Task Force at Regulations.gov that contain information falling within the scope of the FTC’s RFI do not need to be resubmitted in response to the FTC’s RFI.” 

• When will OPM invite deregulatory ideas from the public? Speaking of OPM,

• Federal News Network tells us,
  • “The Office of Personnel Management faces a steep bill for employee relocation expenses, as it plans to bring staff working remotely back to the office.
  • “As part of its return-to-office plans, OPM is planning to spend nearly $42 million to relocate approximately 250 employees — spending about $166,000 per employee.
  • “The relocation cost per employee is higher than the annual salary of most federal employees, according to recent data analysis from the Pew Research Center. It also exceeds the maximum salary a career federal employee can receive under the General Schedule pay scale (not including locality pay). An OPM spokesperson declined a request for comment.
  • “OPM will pay certain mandatory relocation expenses. But the agency told employees in an April 4 email, first reported by Federal News Network, that “it is unlikely we will have the financial resources to relocate a significant number of employees who are greater than 50 miles from an OPM site.”

• Govexec informs us,
  • “The Office of Personnel Management last week issued new guidance encouraging agencies to pay political appointees the maximum federal salary and removing career HR workers from the appointment process.
  • “The April 10 memo from acting OPM Director Charles Ezell to agency heads reminds them of the “great flexibility” they have when setting the pay of employees hired under Schedule C of the federal government’s excepted service, the portion of the federal workforce made up of low-level political appointees.
  • “Such flexibility is important to attract highly-qualified Schedule C employees to serve in important confidential, policy-determining, policy-making and policy-advocating roles,” Ezell wrote. “Well-qualified Schedule C employees are needed ‘to drive the unusually expansive and transformative agenda the American people elected President Trump to accomplish.’”
  • “The memo notes that Schedule C salaries cap out at $195,200. And it instructs agencies to “revoke delegations and sub-delegations” provided to agency HR employees as part of their work onboarding and vetting political appointees on behalf of the White House.”

• Per an OPM news release,
  • “For the first time, U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) personalized Retirement Booklets are now accessible online as digital downloads [at] servicesonline.opm.gov.”

• MedTech Dive also points out,
  • “The Trump administration is investigating the effects of pharmaceutical imports on national security, disclosing Monday a probe that is likely to lay the foundation for sector-wide tariffs in the near future.
  • “The investigation, which was announced in a federal notice posted online, appears to be wide-ranging, covering branded and generic medicines, as well the active drug ingredients they contain. It will be conducted by the Department of Commerce under a legal authority known as Section 232, which President Donald Trump used earlier this year to expand duties on steel and aluminum.”

• Per Beckers Clinical Leadership,
  • “CMS is proposing to modify several hospital quality measures and remove four others, including those focused on health equity and social drivers of health.
  • “The agency outlined the changes April 11 as part of its 2026 proposed rule for the Medicare payment systems that cover inpatient and long-term care hospitals.” 

From the judicial front,

• Fierce Healthcare notes,
  • “Originally approved by the FDA in 1998, Amgen’s Enbrel is still sailing along without facing biosimilar competition in the United States. And unless a court rules otherwise, the Southern California company will retain its patent protection on the inflammatory disease medicine until 2029.
  • “Hoping to alter the timetable is Swiss generics and biosimilars specialist Sandoz, which has filed an antitrust lawsuit in federal court in Virginia claiming that Amgen has blocked competition to “unlawfully extend its monopoly,” according to the complaint.
  • “Amgen, according to the lawsuit, allegedly did this by purchasing patent rights from one of its competitors, Swiss pharma giant Roche, which was developing a product from the same drug class to compete with Enbrel. Without these patents, Enbrel would have been subject to competition from biosimilars—as was the case in Europe—by as early as 2016.
  • “Sandoz is seeking an injunction preventing Amgen from using the patent rights to block biosimilar competition. Sandoz wants to launch its Enbrel biosimilar Erelzi as soon as possible. The company also is pursuing treble damages, which could be tripled, according to antitrust law.”
• and
  • “The Department of Justice will head to mediation with UnitedHealth Group and Amedisys April 18 as part of an ongoing antitrust lawsuit.
  • “Both companies are attempting to finalize a $3.3 billion merger, which was challenged under the Biden administration Nov. 12 for allegedly threatening competition in the home health and hospice industry. Now, mediation will occur Aug. 18, as signed by Magistrate Judge Susan Gauvey on April 10.” 

From the public health and medical research front,

• The American Medical Association lets us know what doctors wish their patients knew about asthma. “Asthma can be life-threatening if you don’t get treatment. Two physicians, from Bayhealth and Rush University System for Health, share more.”

• Cardiovascular Business relates,
  • “Following a Mediterranean-style diet that still leaves room for lean beef is associated with significant improvements in blood pressure (BP) and vascular health, according to new data published in Current Developments in Nutrition.
  • “The Mediterranean diet, named after the traditional eating habits of Greece and Italy, is based on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds and olive oil. It primarily focuses on plant-based options, but does permits fish, seafood, poultry and dairy products to be eaten occasionally. 
  • “The Mediterranean diet is often viewed as one of the healthiest ways a person can eat. The team behind this latest analysis aimed to learn just how flexible these diets can be. If someone follows a Mediterranean-style diet, but wants to enjoy a little more meat, what does that mean for their cardiovascular health?
  • “Increasingly, the importance of customizing dietary choices to reflect personal preferences is recognized to promote sustained adherence to a healthy dietary pattern,” wrote first author Jennifer Fleming, PhD, an assistant teaching professor in the department of nutritional sciences at Penn State, and colleagues. “Therefore, although current dietary guidance consistently recommends limiting red meat, more clarity is needed about the amount of lean unprocessed red meat that can be incorporated into healthy dietary patterns that promote cardiovascular health.”

• STAT News reports,
  • “Verve Therapeutics said initial data show that its investigational gene-editing therapy lowered cholesterol without inducing serious side effects, a positive step for the company after it paused development of an earlier treatment due to safety concerns.
  • “The early data from an ongoing Phase 1 study show that a single infusion of the therapy, called Verve-102, led to greater decreases in “bad” LDL cholesterol with higher doses, according to an announcement Monday. Among the four participants who received the highest dose of 0.6 mg/kg, they experienced an average 53% reduction in cholesterol.” * * *
  • “While the Verve-102 data are early, they move the company closer to its goal of using a one-time therapy to target a common condition that continues to be one of the leading killers in the developed world. The current chronic drugs that inhibit PCSK9 are not enough for patients with higher cholesterol, Verve argues, since patients often don’t take them consistently.”

• The New York Times calls attention to a new study.
  • Middle-aged and older adults who sought hospital or emergency room care because of cannabis use were almost twice as likely to develop dementia over the next five years, compared with similar people in the general population, a large Canadian study reported on Monday.
  • When compared with adults who sought care for other reasons, the risk of developing dementia was still 23 percent higher among users of cannabis, the study also found.
  • The study included the medical records of six million people in Ontario from 2008 to 2021. The authors accounted for health and sociodemographic differences between comparison groups, some of which play a role in cognitive decline.
  • The data do not reveal how much cannabis the subjects had been using, and the study does not prove that regular or heavy cannabis use plays a causal role in dementia.

• The Wall Street Journal considers whether long-Covid is rewriting the rules of aging. Brain decline alarms doctors. Millions of long-Covid patients continue to struggle with cognitive difficulties.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

• The Wall Street Journal reports,
  • “Pfizer is halting development of its experimental weight-loss pill, as the booming obesity drug market remains out of reach for the drug giant.
  • “The company said Monday the stoppage comes after it reviewed clinical data and a study subject developed a liver injury that might have been caused by the drug, called danuglipron.” 

• The benefits consulting firm WTW offers a report titled “GLP-1 Drugs in 2025: Cost, access and the future of obesity treatment. “Employer health plans brace for another year of soaring costs as GLP-1 utilization continues to rise — per member per month spending on these medications nearly doubled each year since 2021.”

• Per Beckers Payer Issues,
  • “Medicare Advantage plans spent $38 billion on non-Medicare benefits in 2024, according to a Medicare Payment Advisory Commission report. 
  • “The group, which advises Congress on Medicare issues, held a meeting April 10. According to a presentation, MA plans received $83 billion in rebates from the federal government. Plans used these rebates to cover non-Medicare, or supplemental, benefits. These benefits include hearing, vision and dental care alongside fitness reimbursements, over-the-counter allowances and other benefits. These rebates are also used to reduce cost sharing and provide prescription drug benefits. 
  • “According to MedPAC, current data on supplemental benefit use in MA is inadequate to determine the value the funding is providing.” 

• Per Fierce Healthcare,
  • “Average physician pay rose 3.6% between 2023 and 2024, from $363,000 to $376,000—about in line with recent years but well behind increases from before the pandemic.
  • “That’s according to Medscape’s latest physician compensation report, which also highlighted particularly narrow increases in year-over-year compensation for primary care docs (1.4%, from $277,000 to $281,000) and specialists (1%, from $394,000 to $398,000).
  • “The annual survey also counted more specialties reporting pay drops than pay increases, as well as a shrinking percentage of doctors who feel fairly compensated and a widening of pay gaps across gender and racial and ethnic lines.”

• Beckers Hospital Review adds,
  • “Annual average compensation for U.S. physicians in four medical specialties surpassed $500,000 in 2024, according to Medscape’s “Comparing Your Pay Against Your Peers’: Medscape Physician Compensation Report 2025.“
  • “Orthopedic specialists topped the list as the highest-paid physicians last year, while those practicing public health and preventive medicine reported the lowest earnings.
  • “With the exception of anesthesiology, all seven of the top-earning specialties in 2024 have consistently ranked among the 10 highest-paid specialties in each of the last five editions of the annual report.”