Direct-to-consumer drug ads: Trick or Treat?
1. That’s On Point
2. Minnesota, leading the way
3. The list price is not right
4. This plan sounds wicked awesome
5. This is why she should stay in the U.S. Senate
Kanye and two drug pricing bills made a trip to the president’s office this week. Guess which made more news?
Welcome to the Week in Review in Drug Pricing.
1. Gag clauses — ✌️out
2. THIS IS NOT OK
3. Fingers crossed, cheaper insulin
4. Kickbacks make a comeback
5. Evers coming up with a plan
Pumpkin spice lattes flowed. Oprah covered her own magazine. A presidential text lit up our phones. Meanwhile, in the world of drug pricing…
1. Get your popcorn
2. XOXO, Gossip Girl…
3. It’s cheaper for this patient to go to the ER than to buy an EpiPen
4. Hello, Texas. Hello, Florida
5. The drug industry loves a good hurdle to generic entry
Does anyone have space in their brains this week for drug pricing news? If so, we’ve got you covered:
1. Big Pharma bailout?
2. We’ll take it!
3. Undercover nurses
4. “His words underpin the mentality of an entire industry.”
5. Who’s going to tell him?
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The fight to lower drug prices can feel lopsided –– a recent poll found Americans believe drug corporations have the most influence in Washington. Yet, late last night, patients scored an important win in the fight against Big Pharma. Congress rejected Big Pharma’s attempt to use the opioid bill to give themselves a $4 billion bailout.
“Big Pharma lobbied aggressively –– and spent a lot of money –– in this brazen cash grab,” said Ben Wakana, Executive Director of Patients For Affordable Drugs NOW. “But patients and their allies stood up and said ‘enough.’ And Congress listened.”
Patients For Affordable Drugs NOW is proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with groups like the AARP, the American Hospital Association, and others who worked together to block the bailout. American patients will remain vigilant; we’re just getting started.”
Big Pharma tried to secure a $4 billion bailout….
“‘PhRMA is begging’ lawmakers to reverse that decision in unrelated opioids legislation, a GOP congressional aide said.” [Axios, 9/20/18]
“Pharmaceutical industry lobbyists were ‘livid’ when the February policy passed.” [STAT News, 3/8/18]
“The powerful pharmaceutical industry has been pushing for months to roll back a provision from February’s budget deal that shifted more costs onto drug companies. [The Hill, 9/20/18]
“Big Pharma is making a major push to reclaim $4 billion in Medicare Part D funds that Congress took away in the 2018 budget deal.” [Modern Healthcare, 9/20/18]
“Drugmakers had been aggressively lobbying lawmakers to reverse that policy as part of the opioids bill.” [Axios, 9/25/18]
“PhRMA has been trying to undo the provision since it passed. Now, the group has latched on to a multi-part bill to fight the opioid epidemic—which advocates say the industry created in the place—to roll back the discount to 63%.” [AJMC, 9/21/18]
Big Pharma lost…
“A concerted effort by patient-advocate groups successfully blocked the last-minute add that would have given drug companies a $4 billion windfall.” [The Washington Post, 9/26/18]
“Aside from opioid policy, drug companies also failed in an intense lobbying push to attach a provision to the bill easing their costs in Medicare.” [The Hill, 9/25/18]
“The brand drug industry came up empty-handed, failing to get a reduction in how much it pays for drugs in Medicare Part D’s coverage gap into the final bill.” [Politico, 9/26/18]
“…pharma lobbyists set to work after Congress increased the industry’s share of responsibility in the Medicare Part D coverage gap earlier this year. But the industry was rebuffed again when its effort to include a partial reversal in an opioid bill was rejected.” [FiercePharma, 9/26/18]
“patient advocates…persuaded Congress to reject attempts by PhRMA to use opioids legislation to reduce the drug industry’s costs for subsidizing the Part D Medicare program.” [BioCentury, 9/26/18]
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The drug corporations that fueled America’s opioid epidemic are trying to get a $4 billion bailout in the fast-moving opioid legislation. According to multiple news reports, Big Pharma is close to inserting language into the opioid package that would roll back drug companies’ share of costs in the Medicare donut hole from 70 percent to 63 percent. This would mean a massive bailout for Big Pharma and higher costs for patients.
Read all about it below:
POLITICO: “A last-minute effort by the drug industry to tuck favorable policy changes into legislation responding to the opioid crisis is meeting health industry resistance…”
AXIOS: “‘Sounds like the size of the fix for pharma could be maybe 2-3x bigger than the opioids funding,’ a House Democratic aide said.”
THE HILL: “Lawmakers are considering adding a provision easing costs on drug companies to an opioid package currently being negotiated. The powerful pharmaceutical industry has been pushing for months…”
STAT NEWS: “Republicans on Capitol Hill are attempting to use a bill to address the opioid crisis to deliver a major victory for the pharmaceutical industry.”
WASHINGTON EXAMINER: “The pharmaceutical lobby is mounting a last-ditch effort to add a measure to an opioid abuse bill that would block an increase to the portion of a drug’s cost the industry must cover under Medicare.”
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Big Pharma is cutting a backroom deal to make seniors pay more for their prescriptions so drug corporations can keep reaping record profits and buying back stock. Today, Patients For Affordable Drugs Now activated its community in an effort to stop this $4 billion windfall that would hurt seniors and help Big Pharma. Watch the kickoff ad here.
In February, Congress agreed to close the prescription drug “donut hole” a year early for Medicare beneficiaries. This is a good deal for seniors and a rare win for patients, consumers, and taxpayers over drug companies. But today, drug corporations are swarming Congress with lobbyists and astroturf groups trying to undo the deal and force Medicare beneficiaries to pay more.
“Big Pharma is up to its usual dirty tricks,” said David Mitchell, a cancer patient, Medicare beneficiary, and the founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now. “This go-round, the drug corporations are pushing for a rollback of good policy in order to pad their profit margins and make the rest of us foot the $4 billion bill. Both Congress and the public need to know and put a stop to it. The drug industry wants to pay less and make us pay more.”
Under a bipartisan agreement signed by President Trump earlier this year, drug corporations are responsible for giving a 70 percent discount on drugs in the donut hole starting next year. That’s up from a 50 percent discount this year.
Big Pharma is lobbying to only pay 64 percent of costs in the Part D donut hole instead of the 70 percent that was passed by Congress. This would result in a $4 billion windfall for the drug industry at the expense of patients.
Patients For Affordable Drugs Now is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with AARP and other consumer advocacy groups to stop this giveaway to Big Pharma.
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A greedy drug company CEO incites a mass cringe. States keep pushing for change. And a Big Pharma CEO’s political ads play fast and loose with the facts.
Welcome to the week in review in prescription drug pricing!
1. We guess ‘morality’ means different things to different people
A CEO expresses his belief that it is a “moral requirement” to charge patients high prices for a drug from the 1950s. I’m sorry, what? — (CNN)
2. No one believes in the system
Alex Azar isn’t counting on pharma to rein in drug costs. He’s taking action. Same here.— (Business Insider)
3. Anybody out there remember submitting a 340B comment?
Some patients who sent comments opposing 340B don’t remember sending the comments at all. Half of the thousands of comments were sent anonymously. Hmm… — (Kaiser Health News)
4. Big Pharma: kicking and screaming to keep prices high
States like Maryland, Nevada, and California have been trying to pass laws that will challenge high drug prices, as they have become a huge financial strain on state budgets. — (Fierce Healthcare)
5. Fact Check!
As the New Jersey senate race between Bob Hugin and Bob Menendez heats up, a reporter puts ad claims under the microscope. — (STAT)