martes, 21 de julio de 2020

Drug pricing is heating up again

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D.C. Diagnosis

Nicholas Florko

Drug pricing is heating up again

It’s been nearly two weeks since White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows promised the president would sign three executive orders on drug pricing in the coming days. BioCentury reported Monday that Meadows called PhRMA president Steve Ubl last week to warn him that executive orders were coming this week on a “most favored nation” clause, drug importation, no-cost insulin and Epipens for 340B hospitals and passing rebates to seniors at the pharmacy counter.

The rebate idea in particular is sure to be controversial. The Trump administration abandoned a previous policy to end rebates altogether after a swell of concerns that it would raise Medicare premiums. This new policy, which is smaller in scope, will likely raise similar concerns. The Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing is already on the offensive over rumors that some sort of rebate policy is coming. The campaign sent out a 1,500-plus word takedown of the previously released rebate policy, and it’s also already lobbying on Capitol Hill, according to a spokesperson for the group.

The drug industry’s conservative allies are gearing up, too. The Twitter account for FreedomWorks has been busy retweeting angry messages to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, once a darling of the group, for supposedly pushing an executive order that would bring U.S. drug prices closer to what other countries pay. “Rep. Meadows: Oppose the socialist most favored nations plot,” one graphic says. 

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