Alex Azar was confirmed as the next secretary of Health and Human Services with strong industry support. Azar comes to the role with some homework to do on key FDA medtech policies, but has expressed support for risk-based regulation of lab-developed tests and cost-saving bundled-payment models.

The administration's nominee to head HHS is being praised by medtech health-care industry lobbyists but may experience some pushback in the Senate because of his ties to Eli Lilly.

Senators and witnesses rehashed years-old arguments and found little common ground on which elements of drug pricing to address.