By Paige Winfield Cunningham

October 3

AHH, OOF and OUCH

President Trump talks with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

AHH: Pharmaceutical companies are among some of the major industries that will see a big win as a result of Trump’s new trilateral trade agreement with Mexico and Canada.

In the new agreement, drug companies gained guarantees against competition from generic drugs, our Post colleague Jeanne Whalen reports. The new so-called U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, will protect biologic drugs from generic competition for “at least ten years,” she writes, a boost from the current set of eight years of protection in Canada and five years in Mexico.

“The pharmaceutical industry won stronger protection for sales of so-called biologic drugs, which are typically derived from living organisms and are administered by injection or infusion,” Jeanne reports. “The medicines are among the most costly and innovative on the market and are a major driver of drug spending.”

These protections mean fewer generics in the market that can drive down the cost, meaning there will be less competition and higher prices. Valeria Moy, an economics professor and the director of Mexico Como Vamos, a think tank in Mexico City, explained to Jeanne the change means consumers will pay more for these drugs.

“The agreement provides extra protection to drug companies in the much larger U.S. market, as well,” Jeanna adds. “Current U.S. law protects biologic drugs from generic competition for 12 years, but some Democrats, including in the Obama administration, have pushed to lower that to seven years as a way to speed cheaper generics to the market and lower drug spending.”

In a statement to The Post, the pharmaceutical industry trade group PhRMA said agreements like the USMCA are meant to “raise global standards, including for intellectual property, among our trading partners, leveling the playing field for American innovators and manufacturers.”

Electronic cigarettes and pods by Juul, the nation's largest maker of vaping products, are offered for sale at the Smoke Depot in Chicago. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

OOF: The Food and Drug Administration raided the San Francisco headquarters of e-cigarette maker Juul and seized more than 1,000 pages of documents related to their marketing practices.

The surprise raid followed a request from the agency earlier this year to the company for information on the high rates of youth use of Juul products as well as marketing data, our Post colleague Laurie McGinley reports. She added it’s the “latest indication of an intensifying crackdown on underage vaping.”

“Across this category, we are committed to taking all necessary actions, such as inspections and advancing new policies, to prevent a new generation of kids from becoming addicted to tobacco products,” the FDA said in a statement.

“The attention on Juul ratcheted up when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a new report Tuesday showing that the company’s sales grew more than sevenfold between 2016 and 2017,” Laurie writes. “The analysis of retail sales data, which was published in JAMA, found that Juul’s sales increased from 2.2 million devices sold in 2016 to 16.2 million in 2017.”

Juul Lab’s chief executive Kevin Burns said the company is “committed to preventing underage use, and we want to engage with FDA, lawmakers, public health advocates and others to keep Juul out of the hands of young people.”

A healthcare worker from the World Health Organization gives an Ebola vaccination to a front line aid worker in Mangina, Democratic Republic of Congo. (AP Photo/Al-hadji Kudra Maliro)

OUCH: Concerns are growing about whether officials will be able to control and contain the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“With Ebola response teams facing restrictions on their movements in a conflict zone, officials fear containment efforts are falling further behind the virus,” Stat’s Helen Branswell reports. “And if response teams lose sight of where the virus goes, it could spread undetected and unchecked in places where they cannot safely travel.”

“At this point in an epidemic, we’d probably be peaking in terms of knowing where the virus is. And now with the insecurity, that’s compromised,” Mike Ryan, assistant director-general of the World Health Organization’s emergency preparedness and response program, told Stat.

As officials prepare for potential of spread, WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with other international groups, have been working with Uganda and Rwanda in preparation efforts.

“Ugandan health care workers — they know Ebola already. They know the risks,” said Sose Fall, regional emergencies director for the WHO’s regional office for Africa.