It’s officially been six months since Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was sworn in as Secretary of the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department. Since his confirmation, Kennedy has ushered in a number of changes at the department, with cuts to health research funding, thousands of workforce layoffs and shakeups to vaccine policy.
Has Kennedy kept the promises he made during his congressional hearing sessions from earlier this year? And what are the implications of his decisions from the past six months for the biopharma space?
Vaccines and Health Policy
One of the most controversial aspects about Kennedy’s track record that gained attention during his confirmation hearings is his anti-vaccine advocacy.
Kennedy, who founded the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense and served as its chairman and chief legal counsel until 2023, has spent much of his career promoting the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism and has contributed to growing vaccine hesitancy in the U.S. His stance on vaccines raised alarm bells for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle during his confirmation hearing, including Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who questioned Kennedy on whether he would push an anti-vaccine agenda.
Kennedy waffled on vaccine questions during his confirmation hearing, but emphasized he wasn’t anti-vaccine and was instead “pro-safety.” He claimed all of his children were vaccinated, and that he supports the measles and polio vaccines. He pressed he would “do nothing as HHS Secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking either of those vaccines.”
Fast forward six months later, and Kennedy has made several moves on vaccines that could have ripple effects on vaccine uptake in the U.S.
He began his tenure by breaking from standard vaccine guidance on the measles outbreak. Kennedy also stoked vaccine misinformation during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity that the measles vaccine can cause deaths, which public health experts said is inaccurate.
“He has launched a full-out war against vaccines, because that’s just what you would expect,” Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said in a previous interview with MM+M.
Kennedy also fired all 17 members of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) in June, replacing them with eight new members including some prominent vaccine critics.
He changed federal guidance on COVID-19 vaccines by removing the shot from recommendations for pregnant women and children, which could make it more difficult for kids and pregnant people to get vaccinated if insurance companies stop paying for them.
Most recently, Kennedy announced he would cancel $500 million in government funds going toward mRNA vaccine research, falsely claiming that mRNA technology does not prevent COVID-19 and that other vaccine options should be explored instead.
“The whole mRNA vaccine thing is misguided, and it shows that he doesn’t truly understand the potential of these vaccines,” noted Evan Seigerman, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets. “Wholesale canceling them is a strange thing, especially if they can be helpful [in cancer] — and we should get the data to see if they are.”
While Kennedy initially expressed a commitment to accelerating approvals for cell and gene therapies, claiming he would “sweep away the barriers” to getting the drugs to patients, the reality has been a bit more confusing. That has played out in the The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s flip-flopping on Sarepta Therapeutics’ gene therapy, Elevidys, for Duchenne muscular dystrophy; and the agency also recently rejected Replimune’s melanoma treatment despite not raising concerns to the company along the way.
“When you look at a company like Replimune and you hear the company saying that they had good conversations with the regulators, and then there’s a 180 — what caused that?” Seigerman said. “It’s that level of uncertainty that challenges the broader biotech system.”
Health Tech, Data and Privacy
Kennedy has made some strides in the health tech and data privacy world, promoting initiatives in line with the Make America Health Again (MAHA) movement.
In early July, HHS launched applications for contractors to design a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign to popularize technology like healthcare wearable devices to be “cool, modern tools” to help take control of patient’s health.
When testifying before Congress in June, Kennedy said he would like to see every American wearing some form of wearable technology within the next four years. He later added that the campaign initiative is aimed at empowering Americans to take responsibility for their health.
Wearables are not the only health tech initiative Kennedy is focused on.
On July 30, HHS convened over 60 tech companies to launch the Health Tech Ecosystem Initiative, a data sharing initiative aimed at equipping patients with access to services. As part of the initiative, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services aims to launch an app store with vetted healthcare services, and requires these services to incorporate AI chatboxes to increase accessibility for patients.
“For decades, bureaucrats and entrenched interests buried health data and blocked patients from taking control of their health,” Kennedy said in a statement. “That ends today. We’re tearing down digital walls, returning power to patients, and rebuilding a health system that serves the people. This is how we begin to Make America Healthy Again.”
The initiative is aimed at expanding interoperability, so that information can be shared seamlessly between patients and providers.
Companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, OpenAI and Oracle pledged to work with the government to improve data sharing services. While the corporate tech world has been embracing the initiative, some in the public health space have expressed high level concerns, specifically around privacy and HIPAA compliance.
The initiative involves the sharing of data via third parties, which has been at the center of a number of current and past litigation around health data privacy. Recent settlements around Healthline.com and the Flo/Meta privacy case in California shed light on the negative effects of improperly sharing health data across parties.
There are also questions around HIPAA. As health tech becomes more prominent, it begs the question about how health tech companies are allowed to handle sensitive healthcare information, as they are not HIPAA compliant.
There is currently no federal litigation around this issue.
Healthcare Research and Access for Minorities
During his congressional hearing, Kennedy expressed mixed views on diversity and inclusion. While he largely skated over questioning around vaccine schedules for communities of color, Kennedy did express his commitment to the Indigenous community, saying that he was eager to work to improve the quality of care for Indigenous peoples.
During his confirmation hearing, Kennedy expressed commitment to “triple the budget to support tribes,” which is something he previously expressed.
Despite this, reports showcase otherwise. A few weeks after he assumed his role as HHS Secretary, Kennedy slashed the number of workers at the Indian Health Service (IHS) — the healthcare system for Indigenous populations.
Tribal leaders said this was a big blow to communities accessing healthcare services.
HHS also put all of the staff who participated in the CDC’s Healthy Tribes Program — a program that aims to strengthen cultural connections and develop initiatives to prevent chronic diseases amongst communities — on administrative leave in April, with intent of termination.
While the administration proposed that next year’s IHS budget includes an additional billion dollars, tribal leaders have mentioned that this is not enough as the system has been historically underfunded.
The proposal also does not include advance appropriations for the IHS — an initiative that has allowed tribes to access funds early which helps to prevent disruptions in care during government shutdowns.
Next year’s HHS budget also excludes funding for the Office of Minority Health, which aims at reducing key health disparities. The National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) funding is also being slashed.
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