Dear John,

Heads up! We have an exciting event on the horizon with our friends at the Society for Health Policy Young Professionals.

On December 13, our Lunch & Learn series will feature Dr. Tom Kenyon as part of a greater discussion on why PEPFAR (the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) is important, the risk considered with future decision making, and the broad scope of the program.

Global Drug Inspections Post-COVID-19 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it would reduce inspections of domestic and foreign drug manufacturing facilities. 

In the December issue of Health Affairs, Emily Cuddy and coauthors examine trends in the FDA’s inspections of drug manufacturing establishments between 2012-22.

The researchers find that after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, “the number of inspections declined significantly and had not recovered as of 2022, especially for foreign establishments.”

In 2022, total annual foreign inspections were down approximately 79 percent compared with 2019, and domestic inspections were down by about 35 percent.

Following the updated COVID-19 policy, inspections also used more resources and had worse outcomes. 

Cuddy and her coauthors recommend that the FDA increase its investigator workforce, prioritize foreign inspections, increase international cooperation, spread the drug quality assurance burden, and increase patients’ awareness of drug quality.

Take a moment to explore an Interactive Datagraphic developed to highlight this article's findings as well as a video abstract featuring one of the authors, David B. Ridley.

Learning From COVID-19 To Overcome System Hesitancies In Public Health Preparedness And Response

David M. Hartley et al.

Expand Your Research 

In connection with our new issue on Global Lessons from COVID-19, we wanted to highlight studies on COVID-19 and Systems of Care.

In a July 2022 Forefront article, Joachim Sturmberg and colleagues explored health system resilience to understand the foundation for pandemic preparedness.

ICYMI, we announced the continuation of our Forefront Series “Provider Prices in the Commercial Sector."

Due to the ongoing support from Arnold Ventures, we are able to reissue our call for submissions for this series. We will accept submissions on a rolling basis throughout 2024.

With this in mind, let's take a look back at the series, which has featured analysis and discussion of physician, hospital, and other health care provider prices in the private-sector markets and their contribution to overall spending therein.

• In An Era Of Premium And Provider Price Increases, State Employee Health Plans Target Key Cost Drivers (November 2023)
• Government And Commercial Insurer Payment Rates To Hospitals: A Commentary On Priselac (September 2023)
• Facility Fees 101: What is all the Fuss About? (August 2023)