Welcome to the Week in Review.
1. Facts VS Pharma Fear Mongering
- This year’s record investment in biotech companies directly contradicts the drug industry’s claims that the Inflation Reduction Act would stifle innovation and drug development. Data from HSBC shows the industry raised a staggering $6.8 billion from venture-capital investments in the first three months of 2024 — one of its best fundraising quarters since early 2022. Recent actions from one company in particular, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, exemplify the drug industry’s primary focus on padding their pockets. Vertex announced plans on Wednesday to buy Alpine Immune Sciences, a biotech company focused on immunology treatments, for a staggering $4.9 billion — one of the biggest acquisitions this year. Furthermore, Vertex CEO Reshma Kewalramani made headlines due to a massive compensation boost, which jumped 30 percent to $20.6 million in 2023. It’s evident that Vertex is flush with cash, in part due to the company’s cystic fibrosis treatment Trikafta, which carries an annual list price, upwards of $300,000, that pushes it far out of reach for patients in the U.S. and around the world. This weekend in Los Angeles, California, health advocacy groups will protest Vertex’s unconscionable actions and hold the company accountable for raking in obscene profits while patients struggle to afford their drugs. We see through their lies and will continue to call out Big Pharma’s greed and hypocrisy. — (STAT, Yahoo Finance, Quartz, Fierce Pharma)
2. Becerra’s National Latino Health Tour
- This week, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra finished the last leg of his week-long National Latino Health Tour to discuss improving access to affordable health care for Latino communities. Secretary Becerra met with patients, community health leaders, and legislators across sixstates to spread the word about the historic Inflation Reduction Act. Ensuring that Latinos and communities of color are made aware of the benefits of the new drug price reforms is critical given that Latinos experience higher rates of certain health conditions, like hypertension and diabetes, and are nearly two times more likely to not fill a prescription due to cost compared with their white peers. “It’s a relief that people are going to be able to afford what is a life saving medication, especially in a very heavily Latino district like the 8th District,” shared Rep. Yadira Caraveo at a roundtable with Secretary Becerra in regards to the $35 monthly insulin copay cap. At a fire-side chat with Becerra in California, Rep. Pete Aguilar emphasized how the law’s provision eliminating cost sharing for vaccines is currently helping the 1.2 million Latinos in the state who are on Medicare and celebrated the anticipated savings for patients in coming years. We still have a long road ahead to make sure that everyone knows about the transformational benefits within the Inflation Reduction Act which are increasing access to the medications patients need. — (Philanthropy News Digest, KOB, ASPE, Florida Phoenix, CAP, Commerce City Sentinel Express, IE Community News, SAC Health)
BONUS: Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CAR-T), a groundbreaking type of cancer immunotherapy, is currently priced upwards of $350,000 for patients in the U.S. Last month, Fiocruz, a research foundation, and Caring Cross, a nonprofit working to develop advanced medicines, announced local efforts in Brazil to produce CAR-T treatments. The cost? Likely one tenth of the U.S. price, at around $35,000 per dose. Given the many cell and gene therapies in the pipeline here in the United States, it’s imperative that we find a way to tackle launch prices so that people who need these revolutionary drugs can access them at prices they can afford.