Sydney Lepkin

Vaccine maker Moderna says the FDA is refusing to consider approving the company's first flu vaccine, which also uses mRNA technology.

The FDA told the company the agency isn't satisfied with the company's study comparing Moderna's mRNA flu vaccine to a standard dose flu vaccine already on the market.

The study showed the Moderna flu vaccine was more effective.

The decision by the FDA, which Moderna said is inconsistent with the agency's previous feedback, is the latest blow the Trump administration has delivered to efforts to use mRNA technology to develop new vaccines.

Sydney Lepkin, NPR News.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will negotiate the prices of 15 more drugs.

This is the third batch the program will negotiate since gaining this ability as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.

It will also renegotiate the Medicare price of type 2 diabetes pill, Tragenta, which was part of the second round of negotiations completed last year.

The law lays out which drugs are eligible for selection in this process.

Criteria include being on the market a number of years, not having generic or biosimilar competition, and being among drugs Medicare spends the most money on.

Negotiation will take place this summer and fall and prices will go into effect in 2028.

Sydney Lepkin, NPR News.

New drugs typically cost a lot more in the U.S.

than they do in other countries.

And the Trump administration has been announcing deals with drug companies to try to even the playing field.

Now the U.S.

has a deal with another country, the U.K.,

The UK will increase the prices its health service pays for new medicines by 25% and will reduce rebates paid by drug makers.

That's according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

In exchange, UK drugs, drug ingredients and medical technology will be exempt from US tariffs for at least three years.