For all our concerns over Robert Kennedy Jr.\u2019s leadership, his Health and Human Services Department is advancing several reforms that are clear wins for medicine. <\/p>\n
Kennedy deserves the heat he\u2019s taken for his broad vaccine skepticism, including one subordinate\u2019s move to block a new flu vaccine<\/a>, seemingly at RFK\u2019s behest \u2014 a decision that, happily, was soon reversed.<\/p>\n But he\u2019s also presiding over a host of innovative developments that should foster miracle cures for numerous hard-to-beat diseases.<\/p>\n Take one of the most promising \u2014 the FDA\u2019s National Priority Voucher program: It speeds approvals of new drugs and \u201cbiological products\u201d meant to address a series of high-priority national health issues, including inadequate treatment outcomes, public-health crises, supply-chain snags and high-cost factors and to hasten the development of emerging \u201cbreakthrough therapies.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), facing a likely death sentence from pancreatic cancer<\/a>, credits a drug OK\u2019d via this quick-review process for \u201ca massive 76% reduction in tumor volume\u201d over a four-month period.<\/p>\n \t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n Another step to cut down review times: Using artificial intelligence to gather data directly from patients\u2019 health records, rather than have it manually entered over long weeks and even months, needlessly delaying approvals.<\/p>\n The agency is also moving toward a simpler process for OK\u2019ing individualized drugs that treat rare diseases, which will make it economically feasible for companies to research and develop medicines that otherwise would never be profitable because too few patients would ever use them..<\/p>\n \u201cIt is our priority to remove barriers and exercise regulatory flexibility to encourage scientific advances and deliver more cures . . . for patients suffering from rare diseases,\u201d\u00a0says Food and Drug Administration chief Dr. Marty Makary.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Even when it comes to vaccines, HHS is pushing to get certain kinds \u2014 particularly, those that trigger the immune system to attack cancerous tumors \u2014 developed and deployed.<\/p>\n That includes mRNA vaccines, even as the department has cut funding<\/a> for those aimed at COVID-style upper respiratory diseases.<\/p>\n More good news: HHS is pushing tech that\u2019ll enable doctors to see drug prices before they issue prescriptions, so they can take affordability into consideration.<\/p>\n And it hired Casey Mulligan, a widely respected free-market-oriented economist<\/a> from the University of Chicago.<\/p>\n