P4AD CEO to Testify at Senate Judiciary Hearing Next Week
Our CEO Merith Basey will testify at Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, “Prescribing Sunshine: How Competition & Transparency Lowers Prescription Drug Costs.” The hearing will focus on legislation to address the pharmaceutical industry’s abuse of the patent system — including through patent thickets, pay-for-delay deals, product hopping, and abuse of the citizen petition process. Merith will amplify the stories of patients struggling under the weight of high drug costs with lawmakers, highlighting how drugmakers’ abuse of the system delays lower-cost competition and keeps patients paying higher prices for the medicines they need. — [Sen. Judiciary, P4AD]
Coalition Grows Behind the ETHIC Act
P4AD joined the ERISA Industry Committee, AARP, and more than two dozen other patient, consumer, and employer groups in a letter urging congressional leaders to act this year on the bipartisan ETHIC Act, which would address patent thickets that can delay lower-cost competition. ETHIC would limit the number of patents manufacturers can assert from the same patent family in certain infringement proceedings, helping bring lower-cost alternatives to market faster. Momentum behind ETHIC continues to build. The legislation is backed by a broad coalition spanning patients, consumers, employers, and PBMs, and it is projected to save the federal government $4 billion over 10 years. This week’s letter adds to growing pressure on Congress to turn that broad support into time-sensitive action. — [ERIC, P4AD, PCMA]
Pushing for MFN Deal Transparency
Democratic leaders on key health committees sent letters this week to the 27 companies that signed the Trump administration’s most-favored-nation agreements, demanding the unredacted terms of the deals — following a similar request directly to the White House in March. What has emerged publicly about these deals casts serious doubt on whether they’re actually lowering costs for taxpayers and patients. Some deals reportedly expire after just three years and exclude key products, limiting their long-term reach and impact. More concerning, the administration is allowing these opaque, voluntary agreements to exempt drugmakers from mandatory reform models like GLOBE and potentially GUARD — a tradeoff that has already dramatically reduced the projected savings under GLOBE. Despite the significant role these agreements are playing in the administration’s drug pricing agenda, the lack of transparency means there is no independent assessment of the prices secured, no visibility into which drugs are included, and no clear accounting of what patients and taxpayers are actually saving. What we do know raises questions about whether these voluntary agreements are delivering enough to justify weakening mandatory model programs with greater potential to lower costs. — [Washington Post, The Hill, STAT News]
Centering Patients in the PBM and Biosimilar Conversation
On Thursday, P4AD CEO Merith Basey joined Punchbowl News for a briefing on prescription drug access and affordability. Speaking alongside representatives from Prime Therapeutics and the Biosimilars Council, Merith kept the focus on what drug pricing policy means for patients: whether they can afford the medicines they need. She defended Medicare negotiation, called for reforms to stop patent abuse and increase competition, and underscored the importance of finding a balanced system that incentivizes innovation while ensuring patients can afford new medicines.
ICYMI: Former Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor took the helm of PhRMA this week, as new analysis finds that the industry trade association spent an estimated $59 million on search advertising over seven years — all to push its pro-industry messaging and shape how Americans view the prescription drug pricing crisis. He’s PhRMA’s second former Republican House member in the leadership role, following Billy Tauzin, who helped secure the non-interference clause that blocked Medicare negotiation for two decades. — [STAT News, P4AD]
