Welcome to the Week in Review.
1. “Fewer people will have to make these tough choices”
- As part of the sweeping reforms to lower prescription drug costs for millions of patients, the Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sent initial price offers to drug manufacturers for the first 10 drugs selected for negotiation. Executive Director of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now (P4ADNow), Merith Basey issued a statement, marking the moment as a historic milestone for patients who face exorbitant drug prices: “We’ve listened to stories of people rationing insulin or other life-sustaining medications just to make ends meet. By advancing this process of direct negotiation with drug companies, CMS is helping ensure that fewer people will have to make these tough choices.” Lower negotiated drug prices will deliver relief to patients who regularly pay some of the highest prices for drugs in the world. In fact, on the same day that CMS sent its initial price offers to drug makers, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) issued a report that found that in 2022, prices in the United States (U.S). across all drugs (brands and generics) were nearly three times as high as prices in peer nations and brand drugs were at least 3.22 times as high. Thankfully, Medicare’s new negotiation authority ensures that the program will rein in high drug prices and increase access to innovative medications for people on Medicare by considering factors like a drug’s clinical benefit compared to its therapeutic alternatives as well as current unmet needs. — (P4ADNow, ASPE, Axios)
2. Legal Battle For Drug Pricing
- AstraZeneca’s legal challenge against Medicare’s drug price negotiation program, amid oral arguments, faced scrutiny from the Judge, shedding light on the ongoing struggle to lower drug prices for people on Medicare. The lawsuit, part of a broader, coordinated effort by big drug companies, aims to undermine Medicare’s newfound authority to negotiate lower drug prices, as established by the Inflation Reduction Act. AstraZeneca’s contention seeks to safeguard its control over pricing for its diabetes and heart failure drug, Farxiga, which raked in $4.4 billion in revenue for the company in 2022 alone. However, the Judge’s skepticism toward AstraZeneca’s arguments underscores the questionable tactics employed by pharmaceutical giants to prioritize profits over patient access. If these lawsuits were to succeed and overturn the Inflation Reduction Act’s provisions for Medicare drug price negotiation, millions of Americans would continue to be forced to shell out for high-priced medications they need to survive and taxpayers would miss out on the potential savings of close to $100 billion over ten years. Patients For Affordable Drugs (P4AD) strongly opposes these self-serving maneuvers, advocating for policies that ensure lower drug prices for people on Medicare. In a statement, P4AD’s Executive Director, Merith Basey underscored that “Medicare was never intended to serve as a blank check for Big Pharma’s insatiable greed.” And that P4AD remains steadfast in its commitment to “thwart the pharmaceutical industry’s attempts to exploit the US legal system, ensuring essential policies aimed at reducing drug costs and guaranteeing patient access to affordable medications.” — (Georgetown Law, STAT News, Bloomberg Law, P4AD)
3. Bipartisan Solutions To Increase Competition
- Big Pharma’s abuse of our patent and regulatory systems grants drug companies unlimited pricing power and drives up costs for patients and taxpayers. A prime example this week: asthma inhalers. Senator Tammy Baldwin penned a letter to the makers of asthma inhalers demanding them to remove improperly listed patents — a tactic used by big drug companies to delay competition and force patients to pay high prices. Asthma inhalers can fetch prices exceeding $600 in the U.S. — yet in other countries, these essential medications are being sold for a fraction of that list price. Novo Nordisk’s recent announcement to stop U.S. sales of Levemir insulin (vials and pens) is another example pulled from the Big Pharma patent abuse playbook. Drugmakers who engage in this tactic called “product hopping” remove viable products from the market, limiting treatment options for patients, and then replacing them with newer versions that are more expensive. Robin Feldman, a University of California law professor, described the scheme to USA Today as “a shell game in which the consumer always loses.” Lawmakers have an opportunity to advance bipartisan solutions that tackle these barriers to increased competition and lower drug prices to patients. Congress, over to you! — (The Washington Post, USA Today, The Daily Herald)
BONUS: The announcement by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regarding the focus on sickle cell disease (SCD) as the inaugural target of the Cell and Gene Therapy Access Model marks a significant step towards addressing the unmet needs of patients on Medicaid living with rare diseases and increasing the reach of potentially curative treatments in the future. The agency announced plans to negotiate with drugmakers over the prices of these gene therapies to ensure they’re accessible for the thousands of patients on Medicaid living with SCD. By facilitating access to potentially life-changing treatments and supporting outcomes-based agreements with manufacturers, this model has the potential to not only improve health outcomes for patients on Medicaid living with SCD but also alleviate financial burdens on communities facing systemic barriers to access essential medications.