The thorny questions in Washington

Will congressional bluster actually lead to drug pricing legislation? STAT Washington correspondents Nicholas Florko and Lev Facher delved into that question at length in a webinar yesterday, which you can watch right here.

The short answer, though, is: yeah, probably. Reforms to Medicare and legislation that would speed up generic competition have bipartisan support and will likely become law.

The thornier question, however, is whether any likely reforms will have a marked effect on how the drug industry does business.

We asked readers about that yesterday, and about 34 percent said pharma’s business model will be forever changed by future legislation. That, of course, means that 66 percent don’t see much to fret about in all the hearings and handwringing.