Welcome to the Week in Review.
New Bills Attempt To Weaken The IRA
P4AD sent a letter to all members of the House of Representatives yesterday, opposing two bills that would weaken the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program – a critical lever that will lower drug prices for millions of Americans on Medicare. The letter makes it clear: the 2022 prescription drug law was designed to balance innovation with fairer pricing, ensuring drug companies can profit while preventing unnecessary price hikes that leave patients struggling to afford their medications. One bill, the ORPHAN Cures Act, would expand Medicare’s negotiation exemption beyond drugs approved for a single orphan disease to those with multiple indications—providing a loophole for drugmakers to extend unwarranted monopolies and inflate prices indefinitely. Orphan drugs with multiple indications already generate significant revenue from expanded patient populations, in both public and private markets, and don’t need additional exemptions to remain profitable. The second bill, the Ensuring Pathways to Innovative Cures (EPIC) Act, which is expected to be reintroduced, would extend the negotiation exemption for small molecule drugs from nine to thirteen years, forcing patients to pay higher prices for longer. This change is unnecessary, as the current law gives drugmakers ample time to recover R&D costs. Companies can still set launch prices and raise them in subsequent years – Medicare negotiation simply ensures they can’t keep hiking prices unchecked. These bills aren’t about innovation – they’re about protecting pharma’s profits and undermining the law at the expense of patients. Any members who are committed to lowering drug prices should oppose these harmful bills and reject industry-backed efforts to weaken the law. — (P4ADNow, KFF, STAT, BIO)
Price Hikes On 15 Drugs Selected For Medicare Negotiation
The drugmakers behind the 15 drugs selected for the second round of Medicare negotiation have spent years rapidly hiking prices. Cancer drugs on the list lead the pack: Pomalyst, a multiple myeloma treatment, has soared in price by 130% since its launch in 2013, while Ibrance, a breast cancer medication, has increased by 62% over the 10 years its been on the market. Novo Nordisk has hiked prices on expensive GLP-1 treatments Ozempic and Rybelsus every single year since 2021. Meanwhile, GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) inhaler Trelegy is up 24% since 2017 and Breo Ellipta has jumped 52% since 2013. Many of these drugs have also been shielded from competition by layers of patents, extending Pharma’s monopolies long past the dates they should have faced lower-cost alternatives. Austedo, a drug used to treat movement disorders like Huntington’s disease, has 28 active patents, while Ozempic and Trelegy each hold 20 active patents—ensuring prices stay high while patients foot the bill. — (NBC, AARP, Pharsight, Pharsight, Pharsight)
Americans Demand Health Care Affordability
A new Gallup and Emory University poll found that more than half of Americans ranked improving access and lowering costs as one of their top three concerns – cutting across party lines and underscoring the mounting frustration over soaring prices. Big Pharma has rigged the system to put excessive profits over patients, driving up prices and leaving one in three Americans struggling to afford their medicines. With public demand for reform at an all-time high and nine out of 10 Americans in agreement that Congress needs to do more to lower drug costs, the question is no longer whether drug prices need to come down—it’s whether lawmakers will stand with patients or protect Pharma’s bottom line. — (Gallup/Emory University, Axios, KFF)
Big Pharma’s Big Earnings
Quarterly earning reports from 2024 are rolling in and unsurprisingly, Big Pharma has once again come out on top. Pfizer beat expectations and raked in $17.76 billion in fourth-quarter revenue, a 22% increase from the same period last year. Novo Nordisk reported revenue of $12.26 billion in the period, largely driven by skyrocketing sales of its pricey GLP-1 drug Wegovy. Meanwhile, GSK pulled in $10.4 billion in revenue, as it continues to charge more than $11,000 for its endometrial cancer treatment, Jemperli, among other medications. These earnings are a blunt reminder: Big Pharma is swimming in cash and can afford to lower prices. Instead, they continue to hike drug costs while lobbying to block reforms—putting profits over patients at every turn. — (CNBC, The Washington Post, Fierce Pharma, The Washington Post)
In Case You Missed It
Ranking Members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the House Education and Workforce Committee, and the House Ways and Means Committee wrote a letter to the Government Accountability Office requesting that they monitor the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program to ensure the new Trump administration upholds its promise to lower prescription drug prices and drive down taxpayer spending.
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