Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Plans From Trump, Pelosi to Curb High Drug Costs Will Halt Innovation, Create Disruptions We Can't Afford
Washington Examiner: Trump Drug Pricing Proposal Would Doom Future Cures
President Trump wants to make a deal on drug prices. But his latest proposal could grind medical innovation to a halt. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said last week that the president was looking for "most favored nation status," whereby the United States got "the best deal among developed countries" for prescription drugs. That may sound like the art of the deal. But it would result in the development of far fewer new drugs — and would thus snuff out hope for millions of Americans currently suffering from incurable diseases. (Sally Pipes, 11/25)
Lincoln Journal Star: Pelosi Plan Wrong On Drug Prices
There are several significant concerns with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s new drug proposal, H.R. 3 or the Lower Drug Costs Now Act of 2019. While this legislation aims to reduce the price of prescription drugs, the reality is that H.R. 3 would bring far more disruptions that we can’t afford. Above all, H.R. 3 is the beginning of a socialized health care system masked in the name of progress. (Lisa May, 11/26)
Stat: In Pricing Our Gene Therapy, Bluebird Weighed Value, Shared Risk, And A Lifetime Cap
It is hard to not get emotional when you witness the unfair reality of terrible diseases and personal stories of struggle, triumph, perseverance, and loss. So I cried — no surprise for anyone who knows me well — for joy not long ago when the company I work for, Bluebird Bio, received regulatory approval in Europe for Zynteglo, our first gene therapy. It marked a turning point not only for people with transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia, who could see potentially curative benefits, but also for the researchers who, against the odds, poured in blood, sweat, and tears to make hope a reality. (Nick Leschly, 11/26)
The Gazette: Bipartisan Solution To Prescription Drug Costs
Politicians rarely get much right. I should know. I have done a few things well and, honestly, a lot of things wrong. “Government Ruins Nearly Everything”, as one Colorado writer explains clearly in her important book. But every now and then, there is an exception to the rule. Today that exception is a bipartisan proposal by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden to lower prescription drug costs. (Owen Hill, 11/24)
Pennlive.Com: Pharmacy Benefit Managers Profit From High Drug Prices
Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) were created to control prescription drug prices. Since they arrived on the scene in 1987, however, prescription drug benefit costs have risen by 1,129 percent and patients’ actual out-of-pocket costs have increased by almost 200 percent. Here in Pennsylvania, a 2018 report from Auditor General Eugene DePasquale found that as prescription drug costs in the commonwealth went from $1.41 billion in 2013 to $2.86 billion in 2017 (an increase of more than 100 percent!), the average price of a prescription at a community pharmacy actually went down slightly, and prescription volume was flat. (Darrin Silbaugh, 11/25)
The Washington Times: Drug-Pricing Proposals Threaten To Derail The Pace Of Biomedical Advances
Americans are the envy of the world when it comes to accessing the medicines that save, extend and improve lives. Consider that 90 percent of the new drugs approved in the United States, Europe and Japan and launched in any country between 2011 and 2017 are available in the United States. Yet only half of those treatments are available in France, by contrast, and barely more than a third of them are accessible to Australians. (Barbara Kolm, 11/26)
Green Bay Press Gazette: Door County Medical Center CEO Aims To Lower Drug Prices With State Task Force
Prescription drug are expected to cost Wisconsinites more than $1.9 billion in 2019, according to a Gov. Tony Evers-signed executive order. This statistic drove home the reason Evers put together the Governor's Task Force on Reducing Prescription Drug Prices. People from various fields related to the issue comprise the group, from insurance to medical center leaders — including Door County's own Brian Stephens. (Sammy Gibbons, 11/26)
