Viewpoints: Congress Must Act Quickly On Drug-Pricing Reform; Political Affiliation Affects Health Outcomes

The New York Times: Congress Must Rein In Skyrocketing Drug Prices 
Millions of Americans are forced to ration or go without prescription drugs because of their high cost. Yet Congress has so far failed to pass legislation to lower drug prices. They may have another shot. Drug pricing reforms passed by the House of Representatives last November stalled after Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia withdrew his support for President Biden’s signature Build Back Better legislation. But last week Senator Manchin said that drug pricing reform is “the one thing that must be done” this year. He is reportedly in talks with the Senate majority leader, Charles Schumer, on a revised spending bill that would address high prescription drug prices, although the success of the negotiations is far from assured. (Benjamin N. Rome, Alexander C. Egilman and Aaron S. Kesselheim, 6/8)

Stat: U.S. Death Rates Show How Politics Are Affecting Public Health 
In an ideal world, public health would be independent of politics. Yet recent events in the U.S., such as the Supreme Court’s impending repeal of Roe v. Wade, the spike in gun violence across the country, and the stark partisan divide on the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, are putting public health on a collision course with politics. Although this may seem like a new phenomenon, American politics has been creating a deep fissure in the health of Americans over the past two decades. (Haider J. Warraich, 6/7)

Kansas City Star: ‘Janes’ Documentary Recounts Scary Time Of Illegal Abortions 
It opens with a woman’s voice and a black screen. “I had no other options,” she says. “I wanted it over with.” Then you see her. White, gray-haired, maybe somewhere in her 70s. And she continues her story. “I didn’t care how it was done. I was that desperate.” Someone gave her a phone number. “And it was the mob.” The gangsters talked in code. Did she want a Chevrolet ($500), a Cadillac ($750) or a Rolls Royce ($1,000)? “That’s what the mob charged for an abortion.” (Leonard Pitts Jr., 6/7)

Stat: How The U.S. Can Mitigate And Prevent Medical Device Shortages 
Just weeks after the U.S. declared Covid-19 to be a public health emergency in early 2020, shortages of personal protective equipment for health care providers and medical devices dominated headlines, and many Americans were soon directly affected by the lack of these essential products. Covid-19 exposed weaknesses in the U.S. supply chain and the country’s overdependence on medical supplies, devices, and components imported from overseas. Shortages persist today and span a variety of categories, including supplies essential for patient care such as blood collection tubes, contrast media, and more. While the pandemic fueled much-needed progress on supply chain resilience, policymakers, manufacturers, and other key stakeholders can help prevent or resolve future shortages of medical devices. (Michael J. Alkire and Soumi Saha, 6/8)

Stat: User Fee Bill Needs To Address Pharma's Role In The Climate Crisis 
As Congress works to reauthorize for the seventh time pharmaceutical user fee legislation, it is overlooking what should be part of virtually every law that affects industry these days: the climate crisis. The Prescription Drug User Fee Act, initially established in 1992, primarily authorizes the Food and Drug Administration to collect user fees from industry that fund review and approval of patented and generic drugs, biosimilars, and medical devices, as well as related FDA performance goals. This update would reauthorize the act for fiscal year 2023 through 2027. (David Introcaso, 6/8)

The CT Mirror: Prescription Price Controls Induce Shortages And Hamper Innovation
Lately, stakeholders in the health economy have been playing the “blame game” over rising healthcare expenses. Price controls have taken center stage in state and federal proposals as a tactic to arbitrarily lower prescription drug costs. While this may seem like a reasonable solution to an issue we all face, price controls wherever and whenever they have been tried always have undesirable short- and long-term economic consequences. Misguided and ill-informed policies like these will harm patients here in Connecticut and across the nation. (Paul Pescatello, 6/8)

USA Today: Human Trafficking: China Uses Forced Organ Donations Against Uyghurs
The leading medical transplant journal in the world recently made the case that Chinese prisoners are being forced to give up organs at the expense of their lives. The journal article carried this shocking headline – "Execution by organ procurement: Breaching the dead donor rule in China. "The authors, Matthew P. Robertson and Jacob Lavee, documented 71 cases, spread across China, where organ procurement likely occurred before brain death. (James S. Robbins, 6/7)