Federal court and administrative actions reshaped year‑end policy risk for life‑sciences research and hospital drug programs. The NIH agreed to resume scientific review of hundreds of grant applications that had been paused under diversity-related directives, committing to assess them on scientific merit pending ongoing litigation. In a separate ruling, a federal judge in Maine temporarily enjoined the Health Resources and Services Administration’s 340B Rebate Model Pilot Program, halting a plan to convert up-front discounts into rebate-based payments. Together these decisions introduce near-term regulatory uncertainty for grant recipients and safety-net providers.