Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Pelosi's Aggressive Drug Plan Would Allow Medicare To Negotiate Prices For 250 Meds And Then Set Commercial Cost
The Washington Post: Pelosi Bill Aims To Negotiate Medicare Prices On Top 250 Drugs, Penalize Manufacturers That Don’t Comply
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to release an ambitious drug-pricing bill as early as this week that would allow the federal government to negotiate drug prices on hundreds of drugs in Medicare that do not have competitors and would offer those prices to all consumers, according to a summary of the bill obtained by The Washington Post. The House bill is a political marker for Democrats eager to show ahead of the 2020 presidential and congressional elections that they are willing to take significant measures to lower skyrocketing drug prices, which consistently poll as a top voter concern. (Abutaleb, 9/9)
Stat: Pelosi’s Drug Pricing Plan Is More Aggressive Than Expected
The plan is sure to please House progressives who have agitated for bold policy on drug prices but, at least as drafted, has almost no chance of winning conservative support. The plan allows the federal government to negotiate the price of 250 medicines and forces drug makers to offer those prices commercially. It appears to abandon a controversial proposal to use third-party arbitration for negotiating leverage. It would also dramatically alter the way Medicare divides responsibility for drug costs between pharmaceutical companies, insurers, and taxpayers. (Florko and Facher, 9/9)
CQ: House Drug Price Negotiation Plan Could Apply Beyond Medicare
Under the Democrats’ plan, the Health and Human Services secretary would identify at least 250 drugs that lack competition and pose the greatest costs to both Medicare and the broader health care system. At the start of negotiations, the upper limit on those drugs' cost would be 1.2 times the average price in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. Drugmakers that refuse to negotiate would face an excise tax equal to 75 percent of the particular drug’s sales in the previous year. (Siddons, 9/9)
In other pharmaceutical news —
Stat: Reeling From Scandal, Novartis Vows To Voluntarily Release Info On Manipulated Data In The Future
Seeking to appease angry regulators, Novartis (NVS) committed to notifying the Food and Drug Administration within five business days of learning of any “credible allegation” in which manipulated data may affect a pending marketing application before the agency or regulators in other countries. The company publicly disclosed the vow at an investor meeting on Monday, although the commitment was made to the FDA last month as part of a formal response to an Aug. 2 inspection report of a facility. (Silverman, 9/9)
Stat: Biotech Veteran Tony Coles To Become CEO Of Pfizer Neuroscience Spinout Cerevel
Tony Coles, remembered by many investors for engineering a $10 billion biotech deal in 2013, will become chief executive of Cerevel, the Pfizer (PFE) neuroscience spinout to which Bain Capital has pledged up to $350 million in funding, the company announced Monday. “From my perspective, the area of neuroscience drug discovery is the next frontier for life sciences,” Coles said in an interview. “It’s essentially what HIV AIDS and cancer were two decades ago.” (Herper, 9/9)
