What RFK Jr.’s popularity says about GOP health priorities, Lilly CEO’s big bet, and the looming cereal wars

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Putting public health on trial

While he’s still a longshot candidate, especially running as a Democrat, Robert F. Kennedy’s climb in the polls and his favorability with voters — he has the broadest public approval, according to a recent Harvard Harris poll — hasn’t gone unnoticed. And it says a lot about how Republicans feel towards the medical establishment.

Republican strategists see him as a chaos agent to weaken Biden’s platform, but it’s not Democrats who are resonating with RFK. More than half of Republicans approve of the anti-establishment, anti-vaccine candidate, right as conservative trust in health officials and the world of public health is at an all-time low.

However that tact has earned mounting frustration from other Republican strategists who privately vented to STAT that raising Kennedy’s profile was stoking conspiracy-laden wings of the party. More from me here.

Eli Lilly’s CEO makes a big bet

Ahead of this week’s debate, one top pharmaceutical executive has already bet big on a GOP candidate.

Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks gave $25,000 to a super PAC supporting Mike Pence in June, my co-author Rachel Cohrs reports this morning. Pence hails from Indiana, where the company is headquartered, so a Hoosier in the White House could be a windfall for Ricks and the pharmaceutical industry more broadly.

Pence’s campaign website doesn’t say anything about his stances on health care, but Rachel dug up a 2017 interview indicating that Ricks thinks Pence could be an ally on industry-friendly policy. Get the full analysis here.

Pleas for hope

The Food and Drug Administration has received 538 comments and counting for a Sept. 27 advisory committee meeting on a personalized cell therapy for ALS that the agency previously refused to consider.

NurOwn is a bit of a test of the FDA’s leniency toward approving ALS treatments. The studies for the drug failed to demonstrate a benefit for ALS patients, but the agency is under intense pressure from patients to approve it. Most of the comments on the docket are from individual patients and their families, sharing personal stories of slow, certain death, often closing with statements that are a punch in the gut.

“Please just give this treatment a chance, give us hope,” wrote 25-year-old Savin Ramona.

“A mother is not supposed to bury her child!!,” wrote Paula McDaniel, a mother from a Chicago suburb whose youngest son has ALS. More here on the NurOwn saga.

The looming cereal wars

The FDA wants to make it easier for consumers to tell when a product is unhealthy before they purchase it. The idea, putting a small warning on the front of packaged foods, seems simple – and pretty uncontroversial – but when Mexico tried something similar, food companies launched ad campaigns that included famous soccer announcers, sponsored Spotify playlists and drone shows, printed double sided labels so the warning was easily hidden, and filed more than 70 lawsuits challenging the policy, my colleague Nick Florko reports from Mexico City.

Already, there are signs that the fight here in the U.S. will be just as tumultuous. The FDA is still studying the idea — meaning it’s months, if not years away — but several food companies have already hinted they will sue if the FDA moves forward.

More on the looming fight here.

Misinfo permeates most Americans’ media diet

Most average Americans have been exposed to misinformation about Covid-19, reproductive health, or gun policy, and a lot of them aren’t confident on what is true or false, according to the first misinformation tracking poll by KFF.

Roughly a third of people characterized specific gun misinformation, like that most school shootings are gang related, as “probably true.” Fewer people rated falsities about Covid-19 vaccine and reproductive health care education as true or mostly true, but they weren’t totally sure: More than 40% said they were “probably false.” The only specific lie that most people said was “definitely false” is that more people died from the coronavirus vaccine than the pandemic itself.

The good news is that the vast majority of people still trust their doctors for health advice, followed by federal agencies and traditional news organizations. But the survey shows even conspiracies people come across on social media can shake trust a bit. Dive into the figures.

What we’re reading

As the obesity drug market grows, digital health companies juggle patients and payers, STAT

Cracks deepen for America’s biggest hospital landlord: Struggling tenants, a bailout on hold, The Wall Street Journal

This summer’s extreme weather may be just a preview, Axios