The Week in Review in Prescription Drug Pricing

Straight to pumpkin carving after this.
 
Welcome to the week in review in prescription drug pricing.

1. Par-tAy around Part B reforms

The Trump administration took aim at lowering the cost of the most expensive drugs in Medicare Part B. Drug makers pushed back, but we’ve heard their tired arguments before. Let’s do this. — (AP)

2. Pharma’s worst nightmare

The drug lobby contemplates a strange future in which the left aligns with Trump to bring down drug prices. — (NYT)

3. Pharma’s sworn enemy?

Claire McCaskill has made prescription drug affordability central to her campaign as she fights for re-election. — (STAT)

4. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again

Only pharmaceutical companies set drug prices. Middlemen must be more transparent, but Pharma’s ploy to blame them is played out. — (Forbes)

5. Precision medicine raises tough questions

“Modern medicine gives us many gifts. But for many of us, those gifts are out of reach.” — (MIT Technology Review)