Battle of the journals

Feb 14, 2025

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Programming note: We’ll be off this Tuesday for Presidents Day but will be back in your inboxes on Wednesday.

Driving the Day

Marty Makary speaks during a screening of an HBO documentary.

Dr. Marty Makary, the nominee to lead the FDA, has been involved in the launch of a new medical journal that some health experts say could have a political agenda. | Noam Galai/Getty Images for HBO

JOURNAL WARS — Two Trump administration nominees with long track records of challenging the medical and public health establishments have launched a scientific journal that its founders say will promote open discourse and review but that critics fear could further obfuscate science for the public, Lauren and POLITICO’s Erin Schumaker report.

The Journal of the Academy of Public Health, which launched Feb. 5, guarantees open access and an open peer review process with compensation, aiming to disrupt journal pillars like The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Marty Makary, President Donald Trump’s FDA commissioner pick, and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, his NIH nominee, are listed as editorial board members on leave. Neither returned requests for comment.

But the journal’s membership-style model and funding from the right-leaning RealClearFoundation — along with an editorial board that includes several Covid–19 contrarians — have drawn criticism from scientists.

“It speaks to the potential for eroding scientific integrity and even, quite frankly, propaganda,” said Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist who consults for the CDC.

The goal: Stanford epidemiologist and board member John Ioannidis said he thinks the experimental model is worth trying.

“These are really good scientists, so I think that they should be able to publish what they want,” said Ioannidis, who co-authored a pandemic-era study with Bhattacharya that drew criticism in the scientific community for suggesting Covid wasn’t as deadly as feared.

The fear: Other scientists worry that the journal’s structure could render it an echo chamber for iconoclastic viewpoints.

If enough scientists don’t sign up to be peer reviewers, those who do run the risk of sharing similar views with the academy members whose work they are evaluating, said Angela Rasmussen, a University of Saskatchewan virologist and editor-in-chief of the journal Vaccine.

Dr. Alex Morozov, an oncologist who founded a nonprofit to promote better understanding of scientific evidence, said the new journal appears to be a successor to so-called “predatory” journals established to prioritize profits over quality.

“Now we’re seeing the next trend where these journals are being set up not to make money but to promote a certain political agenda,” said Morozov, who recently spoke to the author behind a study that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cited during a confirmation hearing that health experts say is flawed.

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Send your tips to David Lim (dlim@politico.com or @davidalim) and Lauren Gardner (lgardner@politico.com or @Gardner_LM).

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Eye on the FDA

GSK's logo is pictured on the front of a building.

GSK will learn today whether its new meningococcal vaccine will be approved by the FDA. | Pool photo by Andy Buchanan

NEW VACCINE ON DECK — The FDA is scheduled to decide today whether to approve GSK’s vaccine candidate targeting five bacteria groups that cause meningococcal disease — an uncommon but serious and potentially deadly condition. CDC says the best way to prevent the disease is vaccination.

It’ll be the agency’s first medical product decision under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a longtime anti-vaccine activist — newly installed as HHS secretary.

If approved, the CDC’s independent vaccine advisory panel is scheduled to vote on recommending the new shot on Feb. 26, kicking off the group’s first of three multiday meetings this year.

GSK’s vaccine would compete with Pfizer’s meningococcal shot, Penbraya, which also covers five bacteria strains.

FDA POSTS HISTORICAL MONOGRAPHS — A collection of almost 1,000 documents containing information about monograph drugs — scientific documents that provide information about specific drugs — was posted online by the FDA on Thursday.

The catalog, required by the Over-the-Counter Monograph Drug User Fee Program, includes several documents previously available only in paper form. Providing them online gives industry easier access to information the FDA indicated could help support over-the-counter efforts.

“Prior to OMUFA implementation, FDA did not have the resources to prioritize making a catalogue and archive approximately 300 boxes of paper documents that may contain data that Industry requestors could use to support order requests or other OTC monograph activities of interest,” the FDA said in an email.

Join POLITICO on February 19, for the Playbook First 100 Days: Health Care Breakfast Briefing where we will gather key leaders in health care and Washington to discuss the looming issues that will shape health care policy in 2025. RSVP to attend.

In the Courts

WEBPAGE SUIT UPDATE — Doctors for America asked federal health agencies on Thursday to restore more webpages taken down amid their effort to comply with a Trump administration order on gender.

The request comes ahead of a Friday deadline for HHS, the CDC and the FDA to resurface resources that the physician nonprofit group said it relies upon to care for patients. The webpages in question — expected to include information on contraception and sexually transmitted infections, among other issues — are in addition to a slew of sites a federal judge ordered restored on Tuesday.

In a status report filed Thursday, the government said it would restore pages included on two lists that Doctors for America pulled together based on member input, even though the parties disagree about whether they fall within the scope of the court order. The organization is expected to file an amended complaint highlighting more webpages taken down last month.

The government said in the status report that it objects to reposting reproductiverights.gov, a Biden-era website launched to help people find contraceptives and abortion services in the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

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Pharma Moves

Dr. Bob Kadlec has been nominated to be assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs. He served as HHS’ assistant secretary for preparedness and response during the first Trump administration and led Operation Warp Speed, the Covid vaccine development program.

Dr. Brett Giroir has joined the Trump administration as an unpaid policy adviser to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on infectious diseases.

Former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf has returned to Duke Health as a faculty member in its cardiology division.

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Document Drawer

The Department of Defense should do a better job monitoring whether people on uniformed services health care program TRICARE have timely access to prescription drugs, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Thursday.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a Make America Healthy Again Commission chaired by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

WHAT WE'RE READING

President Trump asked his cabinet to study a “reciprocal” tariff system, a process that could result in country-by-country specific rates, POLITICO’s Doug Palmer and Ari Hawkins report.

STAT News’ Helen Branswell explores what could happen if the U.S. does not send representatives to the World Health Organization’s annual effort to select what specific strains next winter's flu vaccine should combat.

Colorado Democrats are attempting to move legislation forward that tries to regulate kratom by requiring registration and other measures, Axios Denver’s John Frank reports.

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