At last, a vote on drug prices

Today, the House will vote on a bill that would allow Medicare to negotiate certain drug prices, an idea that would save taxpayers about $345 billion over a decade and, depending on whom you ask, prevent somewhere between eight and 100 drugs from getting developed.

You can be forgiven for wondering whether this is worth your attention. The bill, called H.R. 3, is expected to pass the Democratically controlled House, but its more progressive tenets are unlikely to go anywhere in the Republican-majority Senate. Also, President Trump has promised to veto it anyway.

But that hasn’t stopped the biopharmaceutical powers that be from taking up arms. Biotech companies, venture capitalists, and trade groups have loudly warned that the House bill would imperil the industry’s efforts to invent new medicines. And, as STAT’s Nicholas Florko reports, they’ve bought a slew of full-page ads in D.C. publications including Politico and The Washington Post, reminding lawmakers where they stand and, perhaps inadvertently, how much money they have to spend.

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