Perspectives: Who Could Lose Out Under Pelosi’s Drug Plan?; The Trade War’s Impact

Stat: Patients Will Be The Losers Under Pelosi's Plan To Control Drug Prices
This year has brought new treatments for osteoporosis, advanced bladder cancer, Ebola, tuberculosis, spinal muscular atrophy, and postpartum depression. And it’s only autumn — the season in which Congress and President Trump will decide to kill biomedical innovation with their proposals on drug prices just as we’re entering a new era of curative medicines. The press is reporting on “bipartisan efforts to lower drug prices,” taking for granted that any debate about drug prices presumes that there are drugs to price. (Peter Kolchinsky, 9/23)

Stat: Tariffs On Pharma Ingredients Call For Smarter Business Planning
The trade conflict with China seems to escalate, although it can change with a tweet. The first of two rounds of tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese goods is now in effect, even as the final positioning or even talk of deals and delays are in flux. These tariffs have implications for pharmaceutical companies’ supply chain planning for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), the components of drugs that produce their therapeutic effects. Tariffs on APIs imported from China pose risks for pharmaceutical companies, both for generic and name-brand products. (Roddy Martin, 9/25)

Modern Healthcare: Lowering Drug Prices With Bipartisan, Market-Based Proposals
Most Americans are affected in some way by rising prescription drug and healthcare prices. Whether you’re personally impacted or hear about the effects of rising costs on a family member or friend, you know things aren’t getting better. The Senate Finance Committee, on which I serve, started working this year on a series of hearings to better understand the complexity of drug pricing, especially in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program. We’ve heard from pharmaceutical experts, federal regulators and patients. I’ve been surprised at the bipartisan common ground we’ve been able to achieve toward solutions in lowering prescription drug costs. (Sen. James Lankford, 9/21)

Modern Healthcare: Let’s Prescribe A Dose Of Common Sense: End Spread-Pricing In Medicaid
Americans from coast to coast disagree about plenty of issues. As a U.S. senator, I know at least one issue that unites all Americans: Drug prices are too high. The soaring cost of prescription medicine has struck a nonpartisan nerve. Sticker shock is hitting consumers at the pharmacy counter and socking it to taxpayers who foot the bill for government health programs. While most Americans agree the U.S. healthcare system provides the most innovative cures and quality care available in the world, they also know the delivery system is too complex, too secretive, too confusing and too expensive. (Sen. Chuck Grassley, 9/21)

The Hill: An Unprecedented Opportunity For Washington To Lower Drug Prices
Congress was gaveled back into session this month with unprecedented momentum behind legislative efforts to hold Big Pharma accountable and lower prescription drug prices. An array of key factors are aligned that make now the time that lawmakers simply must act to get these, and additional, solutions in the end zone. (Lauren Anderson, 9/25)

Stat: The Industry That Cries Wolf: Pharma And Innovation
Drug companies play games. One of them involves product hopping — switching from one version of a drug to a trivially different version just to keep generic rivals off the market. Congress is actively considering legislation targeting this conduct. In June, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed by a 22-0 vote the Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act of 2019. Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) recently introduced companion legislation, the Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Through Promoting Competition Act of 2019. Both aim to quash anticompetitive behaviors by drug companies, and take specific aim at product hopping. (Michael A. Carrier and Genevieve Tung, 9/26)

San Francisco Chronicle: Californians Need Prescription Drug Price Relief
Every visit to a pharmacy is a reminder to millions of Californians of the high price of prescription drugs in this country. It’s not just that they cost more, but that the costs are often unjust — the result of price-gouging practices and patent manipulation by the pharmaceutical industry. The tactics of Martin Shkreli became famous because they were shameless, not because they were unique. One egregious example of problematic pricing by drug companies is a practice called “pay for delay.” (Anthony Wright, 9/25)

The Hill: What Policymakers Should Know About The Link Between Drug Revenues And New Treatments
Prescription drug prices, always a sore point for consumers, have become a front-burner political issue for policymakers in both parties heading into this campaign cycle. The Trump administration claims that reducing the price of drugs is one of its highest priorities and recently issued new regulations requiring manufacturers to list the price of their drugs in television ads. Congress meanwhile passed two price transparency bills last year and is holding a set of hearings on the subject, which could lead to bipartisan legislation that would reduce government spending on drugs by up to $100 billion over the next decade. And now Speaker Nancy Pelosi has introduced legislation forcing drug makers whose products do not face competition to dramatically lower their prices in order to sell in the United States. (Joe Kennedy, 9/25)