June 2024 Newsletter
Prepared by Van Scoyoc Associates 

FDA Advisory Panel Votes Against Use of MDMA for PTSD
On June 4, a scientific advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) overwhelmingly voted against recommending the use of MDMA to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Read more here.

NIH-funded Intervention Did Not Impact Opioid-Related Overdose Death Rates
The National Institutes of Health’s HEALing (Helping to End Addiction Long-Term) Communities Study did not result in a statistically significant reduction in opioid-related overdose death rates during the evaluation period, according to the results of the study. Read more here.

Reps. DeGette & Bucshon Release RFI on Next 21^st Century Cures Bill
On June 6, Reps. DeGette (D-CO) and Bucshon (R-IN) released a Request for Information (RFI) asking for stakeholder feedback on what Congress should do to “bring about the next generation of treatments.”  Responses are requested by August 2^nd. Read more here.

Senators Send Letter Urging Release of Parity Regulations
On June 6, a group of Democratic senators sent a letter to the Administration calling on them to quickly release final rules intended to improve enforcement of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. Read more here.

Study Examines Care Following Nonfatal Overdose Among Medicare Beneficiaries
Researchers from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that among a cohort of 137,000 Medicare beneficiaries who experienced a nonfatal overdose in 2020, almost 24,000 (17.4%) experienced a subsequent nonfatal overdose, and about 1,300 (1%) died from overdose in the following year. Read more here.

Rodgers Unveils Framework for NIH Reform, Requests Stakeholder Input
On June 14, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) unveiled a framework that lays out the current challenges facing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and contains recommendations for reform. Stakeholders can submit feedback on the framework or provide additional thoughts, ideas, and suggestions for reform by emailing NIHReform@mail.house.gov by August 16, 2024. The full framework can be found here and a one-pager on the framework here.

Request for Information on the Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative
On June 24, the NIH released a Request for Information (RFI) on the Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative in order to shape strategic research priorities that will guide the initiative’s future efforts to find scientific solutions to the urgent public health challenges of opioid use disorder, overdose, and pain. Responses must be submitted by July 31, 2024, to HEALquestion@od.nih.gov with “HEAL RFI” in the subject line. Read more here.

Most Americans Don’t Know Primary Care Physicians Can Prescribe Addiction Treatment
Results from a national survey funded by the NIH indicates that 61 percent of Americans are unaware that primary care physicians can prescribe medications for opioid use disorder, and 13 percent incorrectly believed that they could not. Read more here.

House Labor HHS Subcommittee Passes FY25 Bill  
On June 26, the House Appropriations Committee released bill text of their FY25 Labor HHS bill ahead of subcommittee markup. The House bill would provide a total of $48.6 billion for NIH, the same total funding level provided for NIH and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) in FY24. The bill also would impose a set of new structural and policy reforms for the agency, including consolidating NIH’s existing 27 institutes and centers into what the committee-prepared summary describes as 15 new centers, impose prohibitions on certain types of research and other activities, and cap reimbursement of facilities and administrative expenses for certain institutions. Under the new structure, NIDA and NIAAA are combined into a new institute called the National Institute on Substance Use. This new institute is funded at $2,281,695,000, $23.7 million over what NIDA and NIAAA were funded at in FY24. The bill text and a committee summary can be found here and the Democrat’s summary here.