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Since September, 16 major drug companies have inked deals with the Trump administration to lower prices. But in January — the time of year when pharmaceutical companies typically roll out price hikes — all 16 companies released higher list prices for some of their drugs.

The agreements, nicknamed "most favored nation" deals, were aimed at getting lower prices for American consumers and pushing other wealthy countries to pay higher prices for new drugs.

But drug companies, including the 16 that made deals, raised the prices of 872 brand-name drugs in the first two weeks of 2026, according to a new analysis by 46brooklyn, a drug price research firm.The drugs with price hikes included medicines to treat cancer, heart failure and Type 2 diabetes. The price of some COVID shots also went up.

"The real truth serum is what's happening in the marketplace after those deals occur," says Antonio Ciaccia, CEO of 46brooklyn, a nonprofit that tracks the list prices of prescription medications. "January is prime time for list price changes on brand-name drugs. So in examining where we are today, we're pretty much in line with the last few years."

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Dr. Kade Goepferd watched the Trump administration's moves on Thursday to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth with "a mix of sadness and frustration."

Goepferd, who is the founder of Children's Minnesota Gender Health Program, says that for the medical community, nothing has changed about the evidence supporting gender-affirming care that could justify the government's actions.

"There's a massive propaganda and disinformation campaign that is selectively targeting this small population of already vulnerable kids and their families," Goepferd says.

Federal health officials said many times at Thursday's announcement that their actions were driven by science and evidence, not politics or ideology. They frequently praised a report published by the Department of Health and Human Services in November. It concluded that clinicians who provide medical care to help youth transition have failed their patients and emphasized the benefits of psychotherapy as an alternative.

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With subsidies for Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance set to expire, Americans who rely on them will probably switch to plans with lower monthly premiums and high deductibles or decide not to purchase any coverage, which will have a serious and damaging impact on the entire sector, according to healthcare policy experts.

The average amount ACA plan enrollees pay annually for premiums is estimated to more than double, from an average of $888 this year to $1,904 in 2026, according to a KFF analysis.

That will then have economic downstream effects, including for rural hospitals and people who have employer-sponsored health insurance, according to the experts.

With “a significant portion of people dropping their marketplace coverage and being uninsured, it doesn’t just impact them, it impacts everyone”, said Emma Wager, a senior policy analyst for KFF’s program on the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

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A California jury on Friday awarded $40m to two women who said Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder was to blame for their ovarian cancer.

The jury in Los Angeles superior court awarded $18m to Monica Kent and $22m to Deborah Schultz and her husband after finding that Johnson & Johnson knew for years its talc-based products were dangerous but failed to warn consumers.

Erik Haas, Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide vice-president of litigation, said in a statement the company plans to “immediately appeal this verdict and expect to prevail as we typically do with aberrant adverse verdicts”.

A spokesperson for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kent was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2014, according to court records. Schultz was diagnosed in 2018. Both women are California residents who say they used J&J’s baby powder after bathing for 40 years. Their treatments for ovarian cancer have involved major surgeries and dozens of rounds of chemotherapy, they testified at the trial.

In closing arguments that Reuters viewed on Courtroom View Network, Andy Birchfield, an attorney for the women, told the jury that Johnson & Johnson knew as far back as the 1960s that its product could cause cancer.

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Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, Michigan, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and Puerto Rico also saw an increase in the spread of the virus, landing them in the “moderate” tier.

New York City, which reports as a separate jurisdiction from the rest of the state, moved into the most severe category for “very high” flu activity.

Much of this season’s flu activity is being driven by a new variant of influenza called subclade K. The subclade is a type of H3N2 influenza, which has historically caused more hospitalizations and deaths.

It’s not too late to boost your protection against the virus. “CDC recommends that every 6 months and older who has not yet been vaccinated this season get an annual influenza (flu) vaccine,” the agency said Friday.

The CDC said it has distributed 127 million doses so far.

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A federal judge officially approved drug maker Purdue Pharma’s latest deal to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of the opioid epidemic and pay victims, according to multiple media reports.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane on Tuesday, Nov. 18 approved OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over the harms of the opioids, the AP reported. The judge's decision orders members of the Sackler family, who own the drug-making company, "to contribute up to $7 billion over 15 years."

The move comes on the heels of Reuters reporting last week that the New York-based judge said he would approve a restructuring plan for the drug maker that includes a $7.4 billion settlement.

The deal aims to resolve claims Purdue Pharma fueled the United States opioid epidemic by selling addictive pain meds linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths over the past two decades.

Some of the money will be given to people who had OxyContin prescriptions, as well as their survivors, the outlets reported.

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