Flurry Of Drug Pricing Movement On Hill Focuses On Transparency, PBMs, And Public Accountability From Pharma

Stat: House Committee To Weigh Bills Aimed At Shedding Light On High Drug Prices
The House Ways and Means Committee is poised to vote on a slate of as-yet-unintroduced drug pricing bills that would require sweeping disclosures from both drug middlemen and drug makers, according to summaries of the legislation obtained by STAT. The committee’s markup, which lobbyists say will be held Tuesday, will follow a flurry of drug pricing action on Capitol Hill in recent days. (Florko, 4/4)

The Hill: Dems Struggle To Unite Behind Drug Price Plan
Divisions are opening up among Democrats as they struggle over how to craft their signature legislation to lower drug prices. Progressive House lawmakers met this week with Speaker Nancy Pelosi's top health care staffer, Wendell Primus, to push for a drug pricing bill authored by Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) that would impose severe punishments on pharmaceutical companies that refuse to negotiate prices with the federal government. (Sullivan, 4/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Three Drug Companies To Pay $122.6 Million To Resolve Kickback Allegations
The Justice Department said on Thursday that three pharmaceutical companies— Jazz Pharmaceuticals PLC, Lundbeck LLC and Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc.--agreed to pay a total of $122.6 million to resolve allegations they paid drug copays for their pharmaceuticals through copay-assistance foundations. The Justice Department alleged the companies violated the False Claims Act by illegally paying copays required by two federal health programs for the companies’ own products through purportedly independent foundations that the companies used as conduits. The Justice Department also said the claims in the settlement are allegations and there has been no determination of liability. (Dabaie, 4/4)

Stat: Three Drug Makers Settle Allegations Of Using Charities To Pay Kickbacks To Medicare Patients
A federal law known as the Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits pharmaceutical companies from offering or paying, directly or indirectly, any remuneration — which includes money or anything else of value — to induce Medicare or Department of Veterans Affairs patients to purchase their drugs. The agreements come as federal prosecutors are more aggressively pursuing drug makers for wayward programs that provide patients with free medications, copay assistance, or help with navigating insurance coverage, as well as donations that are made to foundations that provide copay assistance. The feds are concerned these arrangements contribute to rising drug prices. (Silverman, 4/4)

And in other pharmaceutical news —

Stat: Amgen And Novartis File Dueling Lawsuits Over Their Deal To Market A Migraine Drug 
In an unexpected development, Novartis (NVS) and Amgen (AMGN) filed competing lawsuits over a potentially lucrative relationship to jointly develop and market Aimovig, a new type of migraine treatment that some Wall Street analysts expect will become a multi-billion-dollar market. The trigger for the dispute was a deal between Sandoz, the generic unit at Novartis, which agreed to do contract manufacturing work for Alder BioPharmaceuticals, which is developing its own migraine treatment. (Silverman, 4/4)

Bloomberg: Apollo, CVC Are Vying For Perrigo's Pharmaceuticals Unit 
Apollo Global Management LLC and CVC Capital Partners are among bidders vying for Perrigo Co.’s prescription pharmaceuticals arm, according to people with the matter. Carlyle Group LP, Altaris Capital Partners LLC and Cerberus Capital Management have also advanced to the next round of bidding for Perrigo’s Generic Rx unit, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter is private. The business could fetch slightly more than $2.5 billion, one of the people said. (Tan and Baigorrie, 4/4)