Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Big Pharma Is Swamping Small Biz; Stakes Are Huge On Nov. 5
The Tennessean: Small Businesses Want Low Health Care Costs, But Big Pharma Proposals Do Opposite
Drugmakers are unhappy that PBMs drive down their profit margins. In response, Big Pharma is spending millions campaigning to impose new regulations on PBMs, and some of their D.C. politician friends are trying to help them out. (Nina Matthews, 10/13)
Stat: What Bayer Pharmaceuticals' COO Hopes The 2024 Election Will Bring
The future of health care starts on Jan. 20, 2025. The stakes for Americans could not be higher. Whether it’s Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump in the White House that day, the health care industry must not lose sight of what matters most: giving all Americans more affordable access to the most innovative medicines. (Sebastian Guth, 10/16)
Bloomberg: CD&R Faces Tough Road To 20% Returns With Sanofi
In pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter medicines are often the poor relation to drug discovery, treated as cash cows to fund the next blockbuster. Creating a focused business – through a spinoff or buyout – ought to unleash latent revenue growth, with the removal of excess cost helping amplify the impact on profit. (Chris Hughes, 10/23)
Bloomberg: Emmanuel Macron's Private-Equity Migraine Needs New Pills
Emmanuel Macron’s administration has agreed to take a 1%-2% stake in Sanofi SA’s consumer-health unit Opella to sugar the pill of a US private equity takeover, seen as a critical test of deal-making openness in a country where everything from supermarkets to dairy firms is deemed strategic. Yet what the recent political aches and pains over paracetamol “sovereignty” really show is the scale of the investment gap facing France and Europe. (Lionel Laurent, 10/22)
