Drugmakers Eager To Shift Focus From Price To Value

Stat: Trump's Pharma Crusade Could Bring Changes Industry Wants
Congressman Greg Walden, a key House Republican for pharmaceutical policy, suggested this week that President Trump wants to encourage drug makers to enter value-based contracts with private health plans and the government insurance programs. Maybe that’s what the president has meant all along in his vague promises to change bidding and negotiations. (Scott, 2/3)

NPR: Trump Wants Medicare To Negotiate Drug Prices Directly With Drugmakers
Drug companies could be forgiven if they're confused about whether President Donald Trump thinks the government should get involved in negotiating the price of prescription drugs for Medicare patients. ... So on Tuesday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer cleared up the confusion, for now at least. When asked during his daily news briefing whether the president is in favor of having Medicare negotiate lower prices for prescription medicine, Spicer said, "He's for it, yes. Absolutely." (Kodjak, 2/7)

Bloomberg: Trump Sinks Pharma Stocks On Medicare Drug Price Negotiation
President Donald Trump supports Medicare drug price negotiations, his spokesman said Tuesday, remarks that sent pharmaceutical stocks swinging again as investors tried to assess whether drugmakers will be forced into bidding wars for government business. “He’s for it, yes,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said at a press briefing in response to a question asking to clarify Trump’s position on the matter. Trump has given conflicting signals in the past weeks on whether he would let the government intervene directly in drug prices to reduce health-care costs. (Daurat and Olorunnipa, 2/7)

WBUR: Pfizer CEO On Trump, Drug Prices And The FDA 
President Trump made a campaign promise to lower the price of prescription drugs. After meeting with several big pharmaceutical companies last week, the president emerged with different plans to do that, from reducing taxes to cutting back regulations. Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson speaks with Ian Read, the CEO of Pfizer, one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, about drug prices, the Food and Drug Administration and how Pfizer is adjusting to the new administration. (Hobson, 2/7)

The CT Mirror: Trump Attempt To Rein In Drug Prices May Have Limited Success 
President Donald Trump wants to stop the sharp hikes in prescription drug prices, but appears limited in what he can and will do. On the last day in January, Trump called the price hikes for medicine “astronomical” and met behind closed doors with chief executives from some of the nation’s biggest drug companies. (Radelat, 2/8)

Stat: In Germany, Pharma Groups Greet Trump's Remarks With Scorn
American drug makers have been wary of criticizing President Trump for fear of provoking a nasty tweet. Here in Germany, however, the top trade groups for pharmaceutical industries have come out swinging — taking on the American president for both the tone and the substance of his remarks.Trump’s accusation that the drug industry is “getting away with murder” with sky-high prices has drawn particular scorn. (Feldwisch-Drentrup, 2/6)

CNBC: Drug Prices Rose 11 Percent Last Year, Providing Fuel For Both Sides Of Price Debate
Drug prices, on their face, rose by about 11 percent last year, according to Express Scripts, the largest U.S. pharmacy benefits manager. But costs for employers increased just 2.5 percent across all prescription drugs, Express Scripts said in its new Drug Trend Report, released Monday. The St. Louis-based PBM, which negotiates drug prices on behalf of insurers and employers, hailed the difference in figures as evidence that it saves the system money. (Tirrell, 2/6)

CBS News: Express Scripts CEO On PBMs And Rising Costs Of Drugs
Pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, negotiate drug prices directly with drug companies. They work on behalf of insurance and employer groups that pay for drugs. The companies act as middlemen and collect rebates and other fees. PBMs say they are the ones trying to lower drug prices. Tim Wentworth, CEO of Express Scripts -- the largest PBM -- joins "CBS This Morning" to discuss rising drug prices and what role they play in the debate. (2/7)

The Fiscal Times: Drug Prices Are Soaring: Here’s Why You May Not Get The Meds You Need 
The base price of the most commonly used brand-name drugs rose on average by nearly 11 percent in 2016, providing added grist to the debate over the need for government intervention to slow the rate of growth of pharmaceutical prices and eliminate blatant price gouging. A new study released on Monday by Express Scripts, a major pharmacy benefit management services based in St. Louis, found that the average price of brand name drugs has steadily risen by more than 200 percent since 2008, far outpacing the 11 percent overall cost-of-living increase during the same period. (Pianin, 2/6)

Stat: Another Channel For Pharma Lobbying: Political Groups With No Limits
Last year PhRMA announced plans to save its political spending for lobbying against federal efforts to fight rising drug prices. But the pharmaceutical industry group found giving to political groups known as 527s a good way to channel money to political party operations in the states. Federal election reports filed for the end of 2016 show that PhRMA gave more than $1.77 million to Republican groups, including GOPAC, which supports both federal and state candidates. PhRMA donated slightly over $1 million to Democratic groups. (Kaplan, 2/1)

Bloomberg: Big Pharma’s Offer To Trump: Discounts When Drugs Don’t Work
President Donald Trump says drug prices are astronomical and something needs to be done. Pharmaceutical giants have an answer that doesn’t involve lowering list prices: refunding some of the money to insurers if a drug doesn’t work as expected. The concept of pay-for-performance isn’t new in the industry. But the number of such agreements between drugmakers and insurers has grown in the past year as Big Pharma seeks to defuse criticism over the soaring prices of some brand drugs, which can cost $10,000 a month or more for cancer treatments. (Hopkins, Langreth and Paton, 2/6)

Kaiser Health News: Drugmaker Kaleo Raises Price Of Lifesaving Drug By Thousands
A company that makes a life-saving auto-injector for opioid drug overdoses has raised its prices significantly. Kaiser Health News reporter Shefali Luthra talks to NPR’s Scott Simon about the firm’s strategy. (2/7)

Bloomberg BNA: No Dearth Of Legislation On Tackling High Drug Costs
Lawmakers are pushing various ideas to combat high prescription drug prices. Some lawmakers have already introduced legislation or said they plan to introduce legislation on this issue. Solutions include allowing Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical manufacturers to lower prices, increasing access to generic drugs and importing less expensive drugs from other countries. (Mixter, 2/7)

Stat: Lilly Cuts 200 R&D Jobs, But Says An Alzheimer's Failure Not Why
On the heels of a recent failure of an Alzheimer’s drug clinical trial, Eli Lilly is eliminating about 200 research and development jobs, a company spokeswoman confirmed, although she maintained the cuts are strictly an effort to fine-tune its workforce and are not related to the recent flop. (Silverman, 2/3)

Stat: Former Life-Sciences General Counsel Wins Whistleblower Case
In an intriguing case, a federal court jury awarded nearly $8 million to the former top lawyer at a small life sciences company, who claimed he was fired after reporting that bribes were paid in China. The verdict, which was handed down on Monday, capped an unusual episode that was being closely watched by lawyers and companies nationwide, not just the pharmaceutical industry, because of an unusual twist — the former general counsel was also the whistleblower. It also arrives as a growing number of drug makers have been fined for paying bribes in foreign countries. (Silverman, 2/7)

Boston Globe: Second Cambridge Biotech Worker Faces Insider Trading Charge 
Federal prosecutors have charged a former Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc. employee with conspiracy, part of a larger case alleging that another local biotech worker used confidential information about drug studies to buy stock. Songjiang Wang of Westford was arrested Tuesday on a charge of conspiracy, according to court records. His attorney did not respond to a message seeking comment Tuesday afternoon. (Woodward, 2/7)