Briefs

■ Dr. Stephen Hahn was confirmed as the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Hahn, who has no government experience, is currently chief medical executive at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He was confirmed on a bipartisan 72-19 vote. During his confirmation hearing, Hahn committed to work with lawmakers to combat drug shortages and high prescription drug prices, but he took heat for not committing to take quick regulatory action against e-cigarettes.

■ For the first time since the early 1900s, more Americans are dying at home rather than in hospitals, a trend that reflects more hospice care and progress toward the kind of end that most people say they want. Deaths in nursing homes also have declined, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine. Deaths in homes rose from 24% to 31% between 2003 and 2017. Some assistedliving centers may have been counted as homes; researchers had no way to tell. The portion that occurred in hospitals fell from 40% to 30% over that period and in nursing homes from 24% to 21%.

■ The U.S. House of Representatives on Dec. 12 passed a government drugprice negotiation bill pushed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on a largely party-line vote. The centerpiece of the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act is a provision that would allow the HHS secretary to negotiate prices for up to 250 high-spend drugs with little competition. The negotiations would be bounded by an index of drug prices in other developed countries. The negotiated price would also have to be offered to private payers. All House Democrats and two Republicans voted for the bill, which passed on a 230-192 vote. Critics, including drugmakers, claim that the mechanism is not a true negotiation process because if drugmakers fail to agree to a price below an international index, the government would impose an excise tax of up to 95% of the previous year’s sales of the drug in question. Senate Mitch Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the upper chamber will not take up the legislation.