Aaron Mitchell

Graph of award probability of R35 and R01 from NIH factbook as a function of review rank percentile. As is apparent, 2025 is a significant departure, with lower award probabilities at all scores <40 and significant departures from norm, where even being in the top 10% is no longer a nearly certain indicator of success. Data source: https://report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/report/302

The data is in: the NIH goalposts have shifted.

What were once almost certain fundable scores have become coin flips and what used to be likely grants have become aspirational, leading to fewer awards.

Another manifestation of how HHS policies have led to fewer awards and less science.

I’m right next to you, P100 for a crowded supermarket 😉

Changes in U.S. medical school conflict of interest policies from 2014 to 2023 - PubMed Medical school COI policies remain less stringent than consensus recommendations; thus, renewed attention to policies and implementation is needed to ensure bias-free medical education.

"Faculty at every school accepted industry payments, including 20 (16.7%) deans and 52 (19.3%) of clerkship directors."

Update on COI at US medical schools, out in @plosone.org from Shamik Bhat, @timandersonmd.bsky.social &co
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41790718/

New A.C.A. Plans Could Increase Family Deductibles to $31,000

“Nobody wants that product,” said Amitabh Chandra, a Harvard health economist who has studied high-deductible plans.

Gift link www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/h...

Prasad overruled FDA staff to reject Moderna's flu vaccine application The rejection is the latest instance of Vinay Prasad overruling career FDA scientists to place vaccines under harsher scrutiny.

The flu and pneumonia kill over 45,000 people a year. Moderna developed a new mRNA flu vaccine for people 50 and older--who are most at risk. Prasad, unilaterally, against the recommendation of experts within the agency, denied Moderna's appplication. www.statnews.com/2026/02/11/m...

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Since we need all the good news we can get these days!

CMS reverses plan to end physical data requests and transition all researchers to the VRDC platform:
resdac.org/cms-news/res...
cc @basucally.bsky.social @aschwartz.bsky.social @academyhealth.bsky.social @wschpero.bsky.social

It is really, really sad and angering when one of your own switches sides and joins Team Disease full-on

NIHCM Awards $500,000 to Support Research on AI Scribes, Perinatal Market Concentration, Specialty Drug Pricing, and More. Ten new grantees have been selected for NIHCM's 2026 Research cohort. They will generate novel, policy-relevant evidence on health care affordability,...

Honored to be among this year's cohort of grant awardees from the @nihcm.bsky.social !

Drs. Aaron Winn, Pragya Kakani, and I will be studying trends in provider profit margins on cancer drugs.

@mskcancercenter.bsky.social @ascocancer.bsky.social
nihcm.org/news/nihcm-a...

New study finding regional variation in adoption of PSMA PET imaging for prostate cancer. As we often see, Southeast is lagging. As this scan is prerequisite to radioligand therapy, could result in treatment disparities

ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/...

@carygross.bsky.social @ascocancer.bsky.social

The best coffee in midtown @cafegrumpy.bsky.social is donating 10% of proceeds today to the @immdefenseproject.bsky.social

Looking forward to speaking on cancer drug prices at this upcoming symposium at Georgetown. March 5th for those of you in the DC area!

cpt.uchicago.edu/program/

Changes in pharmaceutical industry payments to physicians after New Jersey's 2018 restriction The federal government and several states have implemented measures to restrict, ban, and increase transparency of promotional payments from pharmaceutical

New Jersey told doctors to stop accepting more than $10K per year from the drug industry.

...looks like we didn't stop. 😡

Great work by Neeraj Patel, @reshmagar.bsky.social @jsross119.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/healthaffair...

"Of these 52 drugs, 36 (69.2%) experienced any FDA postmarketing safety action, including 33 (63.5%) new warnings and precautions, 6 (11.5%) new boxed warnings, 4 (7.7%) drug safety communications, and 2 (3.8%) safety-related market withdrawals"

Summary findings:

Post-market safety actions are very common.
SERIOUS safety actions (new black box warnings or market withdrawal) were much less common.

Postmarket Safety Actions for Novel Oncology Drugs Granted Accelerated Approval This cross-sectional study examines postmarket safety actions for novel oncology drugs that received accelerated Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.

New study in @jamanetworkopen.com this week: frequency of post-market safety issues for cancer drugs with accelerated approval.

Happy to collaborate on this study with Dr. Mooghali, @reshmagar.bsky.social @jsross119.bsky.social

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Congrats!

David Mitchell, Who Led Fight on Drug Prices, Dies at 75

Sorry to learn of the passing of David Mitchell, founder and leader of @p4ad.bsky.social who played large role in helping get the Inflation Reduction Act to the finish line.

His voice will be very missed.

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/h...

We hope to have more findings regarding the interaction of competing industry payments - and on payments promoting the less-than-optimal treatment options - forthcoming soon!

This work led by rockstar student Helen Keetley!
Thanks to @profgenkanter.bsky.social for all your input.

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We also saw some concerning signals regarding payment bias.

My understanding is that osimertinib is superior to earlier-gen EGFRis.

We observed that MDs who received payments for osimertinib AND afatinib were more likely to Rx afatinib (vs. those with payments for osimertinib alone)

5/

Are Financial Payments From the Pharmaceutical Industry Associated With Physician Prescribing? : A Systematic Review - PubMed National Cancer Institute.

And these payments DO cause biased prescribing, as we have written about extensively:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33226858/

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37879723/

archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx...

4/

...at the same time, a larger proportion of oncologists received payments from only 1 or 2 of the 3 competing companies, leaving more than enough room for "unbalanced" payments (and potentially biased prescribing).

3/

We found that this actually does happen relatively frequently.
We looked at 3 sets of 3 competing drug.
For CDK4/6i and BCR-ABL TKIs, about 1/4-1/3 of oncologists had received $$$ from all companies over a 3yr period.
(less often for EGFRi, due to gefitinib payments being rare)

How Often Do Oncologists Receive Industry Payments from Competing Companies? AbstractBackground. Payments from pharmaceutical companies to oncologists can influence prescribing practices. However, some physicians believe that receiv

Our latest study on physician-industry COI, out last week in The Oncologist.

I have often heard the rationale that "if I'm conflicted with all the companies, then I'm unbiased."

So we asked, how often DO oncologists receive payments from all competing companies?

academic.oup.com/oncolo/advan...

Make it viral.

lol, “proliferating healthy connection at scale”

Green Purple

Smashing the Blowfish

Oncology Drug Revenue and Price Negotiation This Viewpoint examines the potential impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act and negotiation of oncologic drug prices on payments to oncology specialists.

Oncologists should support - not oppose - Medicare drug price negotiation. Lower drug prices benefit patients; this should supersede revenue concerns.

So @dusetzinas.bsky.social @rachelsachs.bsky.social and I argue today in @jamaoncology.com

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

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2006

@portalresearch.org @julierovner.bsky.social @megtirrell.bsky.social @djvanness.bsky.social @yalecrrit.bsky.social @reshmagar.bsky.social