Yesterday, President Biden visited the National Institutes of Health, to announce that dozens of pharmaceutical companies will be required to pay rebates to Medicare for excessive price hikes on prescription drugs used by over 750,000 seniors annually. In the last quarter of 2023 alone, 48 Medicare Part B drugs surged in prices faster than the rate of inflation, leading to potential rebates under the Inflation Reduction Act. President Biden’s initiative aims to curb these exorbitant price hikes, ensuring companies repay Medicare, saving seniors between $1 and $2,786 per dose on these medications. Patients For Affordable Drugs (P4AD)’s President and Founder, David Mitchell, introduced President Biden at the event. As a patient on Medicare living with multiple myeloma, David shared his personal journey with high drug prices and celebrated the significant strides made in drug pricing reforms as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act. David is one of millions of patients whose drugs will cost him less from 2026 since Eliquis, one of his medications, is one of the first 10 being negotiated by Medicare. (The Hill, Reuters, Fortune, YouTube)
2. Enforcing Fair Drug Pricing
The White House and Health and Human Services (HHS) have also made significant progress this week towards ensuring Americans pay fairer prices for medical products they helped pay to invent through their taxpayer dollars by making fair pricing a new standard part of negotiations. The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) has integrated fair pricing criteria into recent contract agreements. Notably, contracts with organizations like Regeneron, CastleVax, Codagenix, and Gritstone Bio, as part of Project NextGen, outline provisions that require their commercialized products to be priced in the U.S. at levels equivalent to or lower than those in comparable global markets. This initiative aims to protect people from disproportionately high drug costs, ensuring that innovations backed by taxpayer dollars are affordable and accessible. (White House Fact Sheet, MedPage Today)
3. Setting the Stage For Senate Health Care Package
The House of Representatives passed the “Lower Costs, More Transparency Act” on Monday night, a pivotal step toward addressing high drug prices. The firm bipartisan passage of this legislation increases the momentum for a comprehensive healthcare package in the Senate in January and presents an opportunity to pass bills aimed at lowering drug prices by addressing patent abuses and other anti-competitive tactics employed by drug companies to delay generic and biosimilar competition. This overwhelmingly bipartisan effort paves the way for a bipartisan end of year package that can lower prescription drug prices for all patients. (MedCity News, Pink Sheet)
BONUS: Not all patient groups are what they seem! This new report from Public Citizen shows the power of Pharma dollars at work and how they leverage patient groups to do their bidding including during the fight to pass the drug price reforms in the Inflation Reduction Act. Their actions keep prices high for patients. From the report; “if a patient advocacy group expresses doubts about a drug-pricing bill, that may have a greater impact. If a local advocacy organization publishes an op-ed in the member’s local paper, that will no doubt get a member’s attention. If a new controversial drug to treat a disease gets the ringing endorsement of the patient group representing those inflicted with the disease, that could carry great weight”. Bottom line: If you’re in bed with pharma, you’re not doing enough on drug pricing. To understand the influence of Pharma on a patient group see P4AD’s The Hidden Hand and the 2023 Update Hiding in Plain Sight. (KFF Health News)
Have a great weekend!
As we approach the end of 2023, we wanted to highlight the historic drug price reforms in the Inflation Reduction Act delivering relief to millions of patients on Medicare.
Medicare negotiation is critical for patients who have been forced to pay exorbitant prices for some of the most widely-used, expensive medications. Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) blood thinner Eliquis, one of the drugs selected for the first round of Medicare negotiations, has been priced out of reach for many patients since hitting the market in 2013. Since there are no generic competitors to Eliquis, BMS is able to dictate the price to patients and taxpayers and extract increasing amounts of profit without any meaningful improvement to the drug. During periods of market exclusivity, “drug companies use their market power to set prices well above the costs of production and distribution,” said Richard G Frank, a professor emeritus of health economics at Harvard Medical School. Christen Linke Young, White House Domestic Policy Council’s deputy assistant to the president for health and veterans affairs, called out BMS at a STAT event for fending off generic competition to Eliquis and as a result “earned themselves the privilege of getting paid $16 billion by Medicare last year alone.” This long history of unjustified price hikes has hurt patients who depend on this life-saving medication. Thankfully, a lower negotiated price for Eliquis will deliver relief to millions of patients on Medicare starting in 2026. (Philadelphia Inquirer, STAT)
2. Patent Abuse Watch
In the latest Big Pharma shenanigans, AbbVie is suing potential competitors to its blockbuster drug Rinvoq, alleging that generic makers are infringing on more than 30 patents. This is a classic tactic in Abbvie’s patent abuse playbook, which also propelled its blockbuster drug Humira to earn billions of dollars of profit by obtaining dozens of unmerited patents and charging patients unjustifiably high prices. This latest example of patent abuse underscores the urgent need for reforms to our patent and regulatory systems. Johnson and Johnson’s (J&J) is attempting to exploit our patent system in a similar fashion by reaching settlements with generic makers to delay biosimilar versions of its psoriasis and irritable bowel drug Stelara. As a reminder, every additional day of market exclusivity for Stelara in the U.S. drives almost 18 million in revenue for J&J. Patients deserve lower priced competition to come to market and deliver relief from the unfettered pricing power held by profit-hungry brand name drug corporations. (Fierce Pharma, Biospace)
3. States Push For Lower Insulin Prices
There’s growing momentum within state and local governments to ease the financial burden of expensive insulin medications. Lawsuits have been filed in Utah, Arizona, New York, Virginia, and Maryland alleging that big insulin makers — Eli Lilly, Sanofi, and Novo Nordisk — worked in tandem with pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to price insulin out of reach for many patients who depend on this life-saving medication. These profit schemes hurt patients–too many of whom have been forced to ration their insulin supply or completely go without because of its high price tag. Taxpayers are also directly affected by the enormous costs placed on the U.S. healthcare system. The $35 monthly insulin copay cap for patients is just the start — we will keep fighting until insulin is affordable and accessible to everyone! — (STAT)
BONUS: P4ADNow salutes Senators Dick Durbin and Chuck Grassley for introducing bipartisan legislation to increase price transparency in direct to consumer advertisements on prescription drugs. Thank you Senators for prioritizing patients over the interests of Big Pharma!
Have a great weekend!
Wishing everyone a restful and restorative Thanksgiving break! Here’s a roundup featuring P4AD patient advocates at the virtual CMS Listening Sessions for the Medicare Negotiation Program
David Mitchell, a cancer patient and founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs whose drugs carry a combined list price of more than $900,000 per year, kicked off the first day of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) patient focused listening sessions with remarks on taking blockbuster blood thinner Eliquis and the relief to come from its negotiated drug price. “Negotiation on Eliquis is going to help millions of patients like me have both better health and improved financial well-being,” David explained. The following day, longtime P4AD patient advocate Judy Aiken shared her experience from her home in Maine at the Enbrel listening session: “Enbrel’s high cost has been a real burden, a constant anxiety. A lower price for this drug will be life changing for me and thousands of other patients.”
P4AD patient advocate Bob Parant, who lives with type 1 diabetes and introduced the President in September last year following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, spoke at the listening sessions about his high out-of-pockets costs for Entresto — a heart failure medication that keeps him alive following a recent triple bypass surgery. “I am always on high alert with all of my meds. Many do not realize what additional stress this presents besides living with the disease itself,” remarked Bob at the patient listening session for Entresto. Thankfully, in 2026, he won’t have to worry so much about managing the high costs of his life-saving medication due to Medicare negotiation. Lynn Scarfuto, a P4AD advocate who takes oral chemotherapy drug Imbruvica for her leukemia, celebrated the announcement that her anticancer medication will be eligible for Medicare negotiation in 2026. She shared at the Imbruvica listening session that the monthly list price of her medication is hugely cost prohibitive at $17,000 a month and hopes that “future negotiations will make these meds more affordable” for patients like her on Medicare.
P4AD patient advocate Steven Hadfield, who lives with a rare blood cancer and type 2 diabetes, and who introduced the President when the first 10 drugs selected for negotiation were announced, shared the relief he felt when his diabetes medication, Januvia, was announced as one of the first drugs that Medicare will negotiate a lower price for in 2026. “I know Medicare negotiation is a blessing not a detriment for patients like me, as a decrease in price would allow working class Americans to feel some well needed financial relief and enjoy access to more affordable medications,” said Steven during the Januvia listening session. At the Stelara listening session, P4AD patient advocate Doug Lusty commented on the financial burden caused by the high cost of Stelara in addition to his other expensive medications that he depends on to treat his Crohn’s disease and diabetes. “I am already on a fixed-income and have been hit financially hard with medical expenses between my wife and I, which means lower drug prices will ultimately let us enjoy some savings and give us more breathing room that we desperately need.”
Despite the presence of pharma talking points saturating the sessions, we want to express our deepest thanks to all P4AD patient advocates, whose stories illuminate the urgency and impact of Medicare negotiations. It’s undeniable that the success of the historic drug price reforms within the Inflation Reduction Act is due to the power and dedication of these patient advocates speaking out in direct opposition to pharma interests.
Have a great holiday!
Welcome to the Week in Review.
1. Deflating Big Pharma Lies
We know that Big Pharma will go to extreme lengths to preserve its monopoly pricing power and egregious profits. It turns out that their fear mongering claims about the Inflation Reduction Act are falling flat. Compared to last year, drug company research & development (R&D) spending is increasing and mergers and acquisition (M&A) is on the uptick, according to a study by ATI Advisory. Big Pharma is flush with cash! Despite Big Pharma’s constant spewing of misinformation, patients are able to steer through this shroud of propaganda and are already feeling relief from the drug price reforms in the Inflation Reduction Act. “Innovation is meaningless if no one can afford it,” wrote Jim from Minnesota in a letter-to-the editor. “Medicare negotiation will finally allow the program to look at whether drug prices are justified and move toward a system that rewards meaningful advances, leading to more innovation.” The historic drug price law is prioritizing patients’ health and financial well-being, while also continuing to enable innovation. — (ATI Advisory, Duluth News Tribune)
2. Patients Need Competition To Lower Prices
There was more evidence this week that drug companies game our patent and regulatory systems to maintain market exclusivity and charge patients high prices. According to analysis published in JAMA, between 2004 and 2021, a U.S. appeals court found 36 cases in which companies failed to disclose accurate information to the U.S. Patent and Trade Office (USPTO). More than 60 percent of those invalidated patents were attributed to medical products covered by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This draws attention to the question of the genuine “innovation” being brought by these patents filed by drug companies. One of the study’s authors, Sean Tu, argued that the USPTO should improve communication with the FDA to prevent patent abuse. “If somebody asked me how many people are speeding on the highway? I would say I‘ve no idea, but I can tell you how many are caught speeding. And if 50% are driving red Corvettes, then maybe we should look at red Corvettes. In this instance, the companies with FDA-approved products are red Corvettes,” Tu told STAT. “Perversely, patents can also create incentives for innovations that create very little value,” wrote James and Robert Rebitzer in a STAT opinion. They continue to explain that Big Pharma uses secondary patents and other tactics that “offer little benefit to patients and society” and exist purely to extend monopoly periods. That’s why we’re pushing for bipartisan bills that will fix our rigged patent system and close regulatory loopholes to encourage competition and lower drug prices. — (JAMA, STAT, STAT)
3. Insulin Affordability Crisis
On Monday, the Congressional Black Caucus convened to discuss how diabetes disproportionately affects Black Americans and called for more action to help provide relief for insulin costs. Rep. Shontel Brown cited a study last year that found 23 percent of Black people were rationing their prescribed insulin due to high costs. This devastating reality for many patients who depend on insulin is enabled by rampant patent abuses from the drug corporation cartel that controls the world’s insulin market. Drug companies making insulin products regularly file for multiple patents after FDA approval and extend market exclusivity, according to a study published in PLOS Medicine. While the $35 insulin copay cap in the Inflation Reduction Act for patients on Medicare represents a significant step in the right direction, many people in the U.S. are still facing high costs and can be forced to ration or go completely without their insulin which can be deadly. We will keep fighting to ensure that everyone can access insulin at prices they can afford. — (Cleveland.com, PLOS Medicine)
BONUS: P4AD’s David Mitchell was one of several co-authors on this new paper in Nature that examines the ways that universities and academic medical centers, which receive large amounts of funding from taxpayers, can better ensure medicines including novel gene therapies are priced to maximize public health and lessen the burden that high drug prices impose on patients and society.
Have a great weekend!
Happy Veterans Day to our nation’s heroes and their families.
In the spirit of the Medicare negotiation listening sessions, a reminder that the Department of Veteran Affairs has been negotiating drug prices since 1993.
Welcome to the Week in Review.
1. CMS Listening Sessions Continue
This was the second week of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) virtual listening sessions where patients taking the first 10 drugs eligible for Medicare negotiations shared their experiences with high drug prices and what this relief will mean to them. And once again, we witnessed the reiteration of pharmaceutical industry talking points that do not align with the best interests of patients. Standing up to Pharma, P4AD patient advocate Lynn Scarfuto applauded the inclusion of her costly cancer treatment, Imbruvica — which carries a monthly list price of $17,000 — on the list of negotiated drugs. P4AD patient advocate Steven Hadfield, 71, (who introduced the President when the first 10 drugs selected for negotiation was announced) shared the relief he felt when his diabetes medication, Januvia, was announced as one of the first drugs that Medicare will negotiate a lower price for. “Lower drug prices will firmly allow me to rest more often and hopefully allow me to transition from working full time to working part time,” said Steven during the Januvia listening session. Bob Parant, who shared his story with CMS last week, was featured on the White House’s Facebook page, highlighting the power of patient advocacy. We are eager to see the negotiation process continue, and long-awaited relief delivered to patients, like Lynn, Bob, and Steven, who have been forced to pay unreasonably high drug prices. Millions of patients on Medicare will see significant savings when lower negotiated drug prices take effect in 2026. (P4ADNOW, Protect Our Care)
2. Momentum To Curb Patent Abuses
It’s no secret that big drug companies game the patent system to preserve their monopoly pricing power, delay generic competition from coming to market, and push medications out of reach for far too many patients. This week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) doubled down on its promise to address patent abuses and challenged more than 100 patents held by the makers of asthma inhalers, epinephrine autoinjectors, and other essential medications. “We’re taking this action because I think, as we all know, there is a crisis in our country when it comes to health care costs,” FTC Chair Lina Khan told NPR. “And all too often, people are not able to afford the medicines they need, the life-saving drugs that they need.” In an interview with Current Affairs, Nick Dearden, global director of Global Justice Now and author of Pharmanomics, detailed how drug companies game the patent system to extend market exclusivity, such as “evergreening” where drug companies make small, insignificant changes to a drug just to earn more patents. As a result, lower-cost generics are prevented from hitting the market and delivering relief to patients who depend on these life-saving medications. We must continue to crack down on Big Pharma’s deceitful maneuvers and pass laws to fix our patent system and close regulatory loopholes. — (NPR, Current Affairs)
BONUS: For our bilingual readers – shout out to our very own Jesse Aguirre for his op ed published in El Planeta yesterday in Spanish on how Patient stories have the potential to overturn the status quo of Big Pharma. Bravo!
Have a great weekend!
On November 1st, Ady Barkan, co-founder of Be A Hero, widely-known advocate in the fight for health justice, and who got his start in health advocacy at UAEM, died of complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at 39 years old. When he was diagnosed in 2016, Ady chose to leverage his own powerful patient story to persuade policymakers to prioritize people over profit. He will be sorely missed but his impact and legacy to help transform the US healthcare system will continue.
Welcome to the Week in Review.
1. P4ADNow Urges Senate Leadership To Pass Competition Bills
On Tuesday, over 60 organizations sent a letter, co-led by P4ADNow and AARP, to the Senate toadvance a package of bipartisan bills to lower drug prices through reforms to our patent and regulatory systems and increased competition. The organizations — representing patients, consumers, seniors, churches, students, and disease advocacy groups — called on senators to urgently pass these reforms to lower prescription drug prices for millions of patients. The letter addressed to Senate leadership underscored that these reforms have significant bipartisan backing from a majority of voters and that this package of bills will save taxpayers $2.5-3 billion over the next 10 years. “Senators on both sides of the aisle have put in far too much work on these bills over several years to let this opportunity be lost,” said P4ADNow’s Merith Basey. “The moment is at hand to enact reforms that voters overwhelmingly support and which will help patients of all ages regardless of whether they get their health care in the private or public sector.” We urge the 118th Senate to ensure that patients and consumers are seeing relief from high drug prices and advance bipartisan legislation to curb abuses to our patent and regulatory systems and encourage generic and biosimilar competition coming to market. Congress, over to you! — (P4ADNow, MedPage City, Inside Health Policy, Campaign For Sustainable Rx Prices)
2. P4AD Patient Advocates At CMS Listening Sessions
As part of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began its series of virtual patient-focused listening sessions this week. Dedicated P4AD patient advocates Judy Aiken and Bob Parant, shared their experiences with high drug prices and what Medicare negotiation would mean for them. “Enbrel’s high cost has been a burden, in cost and anxiety. A lower price for this drug will be life changing for me and thousands of other patients,” remarked Judy at the Enbrel listening session. While the sessions are intended to be an opportunity for patients, caregivers, and patient advocacy groups to share input related to the first 10 drugs eligible for Medicare negotiations, common Big Pharma talking points were clearly on display via numerous representatives of so-called advocacy groups. P4AD’s David Mitchell, who participated in the initial session for Eliquis, a blood thinner medication he relies on as a patient living with multiple myeloma, toldPolitico that “[Big] Pharma tried to hijack the first meeting with its paid front groups.” Next week, the listening sessions continue through November 15th. Keep an eye out for passionate P4AD patient advocates expected to share their lived experiences with unjustified high drug prices and what it means to have Medicare negotiate lower drug prices for their essential medicines. — (The White House, Protect Our Care, Politico)
3. Medicare Negotiations Will Bring Relief To Patients
Patients on Medicare are eager for successful implementation of the historic program and will begin to feel relief when lower negotiated drug prices take effect in 2026. In an interview with MedPageToday, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure explainedhow patients and taxpayers will see relief from Medicare negotiation: “So it helps people in Medicare, but it also helps all of us as taxpayers who are supporting the Medicare system to make sure we’re getting the best deal.” Public Citizen released a report that called out Amgen for the drug company’s extensive patent abuses for its blockbuster drug Enbrel, one of the first selected drugs to be negotiated. Public Citizen argued that Medicare could have saved “$1,053,023,122 in less than four years” if competition had been allowed to come to market in 2019. Thankfully, patients on Medicare will see a lower negotiated price for this essential medication. — (MedPage Today, Public Citizen)
4. On The Horizon:Sickle Cell Disease Gene Therapy
We are on the cusp of revolutionary cell and gene therapies coming to market that offer potentially curative benefits to patients. However, the looming question of how patients, taxpayers, and our health care system will pay for these treatments still remains to be answered. On Tuesday, the FDA advisory committee reviewed Exa-cel — a treatment using gene-editing tool CRISPR — which could become the first gene therapy for sickle cell disease if approved next month. Sickle cell disease affects 100,000 people in the U.S., and disproportionately impacts people who are Black or Brown. This cutting-edge, one-time treatment could save patients living with sickle cell disease from a lifetime of severe illness — but it’s expected multi-million dollar price tag will put this treatment out of reach for those who need it the most. “I’m worried that this will be a very highly lauded technology that people will not be able to use,” said Melissa Clearly, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health who studies sickle cell. In an op-ed for STAT News, Dr. Vivian G. Cheung wrote that “without targeted investment in medical infrastructure, these innovations will remain inaccessible to many.” Drugs don’t work if people can’t afford them. — (NBC, WPR, STAT)
Have a great weekend!
Welcome to the Week in Review.
1. A New Chapter For Patients On Medicare
Implementation of the drug price reforms in the Inflation Reduction Act continues as the Biden administration, health care advocacy groups, and elected officials share how the law is delivering long-sought relief to patients. At a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) roundtable, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and health care advocacy groups discussed how they can better educate consumers on the new reforms for patients on Medicare. Becerra emphasized the critical role these groups play in educating patients about the provisions that have already taken effect — capping insulin copays at $35 a month, and, for the first time, making all vaccines free. Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis shared remarks at Protect Our Care’s tour stop about how the reforms make essential medications more affordable: “This is an issue that affects real Pennsylvanians. It’s really important because the insulin and prescriptions are just outrageous right now. So, they need to have a break. I mean, myself alone, when I go for one medication, it’s $400. They cannot afford $400.” Finally, patients are seeing lower drug prices from the historic new law — and we’re eagerly awaiting the relief to continue as the other provisions are implemented in the future. — (HHS, WGAL)
2. Medicare Negotiations Are Crucial For Patients
The Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program will allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices on expensive, widely-used medications and undoubtedly bring savings to millions of patients. “It means that, for the first time, there will be an ability to have a little bit of counterweight to the pharmaceutical industry,” Andrea Ducas, Vice President of health policy at the Center For American Progress, told Fortune. When lower negotiated drug prices arrive in 2026 they will be monumental for patients on Medicare including those taking cancer drugs, blood thinners, autoimmune disease treatments, and some diabetes drugs. Last year, Bristol Myers Squibb blood thinner Eliquis, one of the drugs selected for the first round of Medicare negotiations, made “$11.8 billion in revenue…about 25% of the company’s $46 billion in total revenue in 2022.” C. Joseph Ross Daval and Aaron S. Kesselheim, drug price experts at the Program on Regulation, Therapeutics and Law (PORTAL) at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, penned an op-ed in the Washington Post that debunks the claims made in recent lawsuits by pharmaceutical corporations to stop Medicare negotiations. The drug industry is trying to “achieve what it could not through the legislative process — maintaining unreasonably high brand-name drug prices at the expense of the American public.” wrote Daval and Kesselheim. Medicare negotiation will deliver relief to patients who have been forced to pay high drug prices and we won’t back down in our fight to ensure the successful implementation of this historic reform. — (Fortune, Accountable.US, The Washington Post)
3. Big Pharma Puts Profits Over Patients
While Big Pharma loves to shed crocodile tears about drug price reforms hurting their revenue stream, it turns out that actually — they are doing more than fine. In fact, they are exceeding expectations on profit margins and doubling down on lobbying efforts. This week, Novartis raised its full-year earnings forecast for the third time. Keytruda, Merck’s blockbuster drug, has seen “significant revenue growth” since last quarter, with sales growing 17 percent to $6.3 billion. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) spent over $20 million this year on lobbying, making the trade group one of the top spenders in the industry. It’s clear that Big Pharma executives are busy lining their pockets with piles of cash. All the while, patients are struggling to afford their medications. Nearly 40 percent of working-age adults reported skipping or delaying necessary health care or a prescription drug in the past year due to cost, according to a recent survey by the Commonwealth Fund. It’s time to prioritize the health and financial well-being of patients over profit margins. Lower drug prices for all patients now. — (Reuters, SeekingAlpha, Merck, CQ Roll Call, Commonwealth Fund)
BONUS PHOTO: Check out our long time P4AD patient advocates Sue, Lisa, Judy, and a shout-out to Pamela who met with their respective senators on Capitol Hill to share their experiences with high drug prices and what competition would represent to them! Way to go ladies!
Have a great weekend!
Quick note to readers: This was Audrey’s last week (in review) at P4AD! She’s been honored to be in your inbox for the last couple years. We’ll be excited to announce P4AD’s incoming communications and media director very soon and we’ll see you here next week as usual.
Welcome to the Week in Review.
1. Enrolling In Medicare? The Inflation Reduction Act Will Bring Savings
The annual open enrollment period for people on Medicare kicked off this week – this time with added drug price savings built into the Inflation Reduction Act. Beginning in 2024, drug price reforms like the cap on out-of-pocket costs for patients on Medicare who fall into the “catastrophic” coverage tier are “going to help people who have very expensive medications for conditions like cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and hepatitis,” said KFF’s Tricia Neuman. The cap will begin to phase in next year when people on Medicare will pay zero after they reach the catastrophic phase of Medicare Part D which should be at about $3,250-3,500 in spending. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse touted the provisions in the historic law and explained that the reforms are “lowering health care costs for seniors, and finally breaking the grip of Big Pharma, providing much-needed relief to Rhode Islanders on Medicare.” In a letter-to-the-editor, Diane J. Young cited Medicare negotiation as an important way to push back on the rising costs of prescription drugs in the U.S. For Bob in Nevada, lower drug prices through Medicare negotiation will save him money on his blood thinner medication, Xarelto — one of the most expensive medicines in Medicare Part D. Further in the coming years, patients living with cancer are going to see significantly lowered costs for their treatments because of Medicare negotiations and the $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket costs, explained Joshua Cohen in a column for Forbes. The savings will just keep coming – we’re excited for patients across the country to enroll in Medicare and feel the relief in their pocketbooks from the Inflation Reduction Act. — (KFF, The Newport Buzz, The Washington Post, Nevada Current, Forbes)
2. Patients Depend On Patent & Regulatory Reforms
While Congress is sorting out its end-of-year package bill (as well as the Speaker of the House), elected officials and drug price experts are pushing for passage of bipartisan bills to curb patent and regulatory abuses and increase competition to lower drug prices. Former Texas Rep. Joe Barton penned an op-ed that breaks down the tactics that Big Pharma employs to keep drug prices high, like “pay-for-delay” in which drug companies pay off generic makers to delay their drugs from coming to market. Earlier this month, the Mayo Clinic and LifePoint Health filed a lawsuit against Celgene over its multiple myeloma drug Revlimid — alleging that the drug company engaged in pay-for-delay deals to stall the sale of generic versions of the drug. “Whether the current legal landscape for pharmaceutical patents is good policy is a hotly debated topic,” wroteUPenn fellow Laura Delbow in an opinion piece. “Yet one thing is certain: Patents are a key reason why drug prices are so high.” We couldn’t agree more. Thankfully, there are bipartisan policies to rein in Big Pharma’s manipulation of our patent and regulatory systems. Senators, time to advance these bills. — (Irving Weekly, Fierce Healthcare, The Regulatory Review, Des Moines Register)
3. Addressing Launch Prices Of Gene Therapies
Revolutionary cell and gene therapies will transform the lives of patients and offer potentially curative benefits. But these therapies are coming to market at outrageously high launch prices that put profit over the needs of patients and our health care system. P4AD’s David Mitchell told Bloomberg that these treatments will be “miraculous,” but a pressing question looms for patients about how to reach a fair price. Patients like David may one day turn to second line treatments like gene therapy to treat their conditions and will depend on the price being within reach. We need to address the high launch prices that Big Pharma charges patients and taxpayers. Drugs don’t work if people can’t afford them. — (Bloomberg)
PRICE GOUGING ALERT: This week we learned Pfizer plans to set the U.S. price for its COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid at nearly $1,400. That’s more than double what the government currently pays and far more than what it costs to make. Outrageous.
