Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Pfizer Says Trump's Drug-Pricing Orders Would Add To 'Anxiety'
Reuters: Pfizer Rethinking U.S. Expansion If Drug Pricing Orders Implemented
Pfizer Inc Chief Executive Albert Bourla said the drugmaker could rethink plans to expand in the United States if the country implements an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last week that would tie the prices Medicare patients pay for drugs to those paid by other countries. “These new executive orders could force us to rethink those plans, consider job reductions and add to the economic and health anxiety already widely felt in our country,” Bourla said on the company’s earnings conference call. (7/28)
Forbes: Trump’s Executive Orders On Drug Pricing Contain Caveats And Limitations
On Friday, July 24th, President Trump issued four executive orders on prescription drug pricing. The executive orders are designed to, in the President’s words “completely restructure the prescription drug market.” Putting the President’s hyperbole aside, there are caveats and limitations attached to all four executive orders. And, the orders contain few if any substantively new policy changes. In fact, most of the policy changes contained in the orders were included in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Blueprint to Lower Drug Prices and Reduce Out-of-Pocket Costs, released in May 2018. (Cohen, 7/25)
Reuters: Explainer: Trump's Plan To Cut Drug Prices
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed four executive orders designed to reduce drug costs for consumers, in a bid to highlight his commitment to cutting prescription prices ahead of the November presidential election. The orders, which range from relaxing drug importation rules to cutting Medicare payments to drugmakers, are far reaching but experts say they are unlikely to take effect in the near term and in some cases lack specifics. The executive orders have for the most part been proposed by the Trump administration in various forms in the past, but stalled amid industry pushback. (O'Donnell, 7/27)
In other prescription drug news —
Reuters: After Early Hype, Japan's Homegrown COVID-19 Drug Hope Avigan Faces Rocky Future
Fujifilm Holdings Corp’s Avigan, once hyped as a potential COVID-19 treatment by Japan’s prime minister, is facing uncertain prospects in the country, dampened by disappointing clinical studies and slow progress in regulatory review. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe previously touted Avigan’s potential as Japan’s contribution to a global race for coronavirus treatments, aiming for domestic approval in May and offering to give it away to other countries. He mentioned the drug in at least 10 official speeches from February. But Abe has lately gone mum on the drug and regulatory deadlines have lapsed. (Swift, 7/28)
