Aug. 15, 2022 — The Inflation Reduction Act passed last week may represent the best outcome the biopharma industry reasonably could have hoped for at a time when so many in Congress are eager to respond to strong public opinion that prescription prices are too high. The new legislation, which reins in some drug costs […]
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April 12, 2022 – Despite roughly 10,000 public comments and intense lobbying regarding a draft national coverage determination for the controversial Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm, last week the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it will retain the proposal’s coverage plan: Medicare will only fund prescriptions of Aduhelm for patients enrolled in randomized, controlled […]
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Aug. 20, 2021 — The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) has “updated and enhanced” its voluntary code of ethics regarding how the drug industry can appropriately interact with U.S. health care professionals (HCPs) while marketing biopharma products in various ways, including speaker programs. PhRMA’s revised “Code on Interactions with Health Care Professionals,” last updated […]
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Aug. 16, 2021 – As part of his “Build Back Better” agenda, President Joe Biden re-emphasized in a televised address last week that he would like Congress to make changes that would allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices to reduce costs for “millions of Americans.” Specifically, Biden wants to see legislative reforms that would remove […]
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Nov. 20, 2020 – In a rare special fraud alert issued Nov. 16, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) expresses skepticism about the value of company-sponsored speaker bureau events, outlines its concerns about “inherent fraud and abuse risks” associated with these programs, and offers a non-exhaustive list of the […]
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Aug. 31, 2020 – Following the Democratic and Republican convention attacks on big pharma and President Trump’s acceptance speech for his party’s nomination for re-election – in which he claimed to have already taken effective action to lower prescription drug prices through Executive Orders – the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) is making […]
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Aug. 7, 2020 – The Executive Order signed Aug. 6 by President Donald J. Trump to increase production of essential medical supplies in the United States is raising a lot of eyebrows in the biopharmaceutical industry, largely because pivoting to such a model will not be easy and may end up costing more, both in […]
Read more July 27, 2020 – The four Executive Orders signed by President Trump on Friday were designed to address drug pricing concerns, but their combined impact is modest and they are “unlikely to have any immediate effect,” according to Coalition for Healthcare Communication Executive Director Jon Bigelow. However, they do “give the president talking points for […]
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April 8, 2019 – The first television ads including drug price information are hitting the airwaves, reinforcing the point that list price is a highly misleading metric, and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) members are preparing to voluntarily refer consumers to online drug pricing information in their drug ads within a few weeks. […]
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Feb. 25, 2019 – Even as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services considers comments received on a federal proposal to mandate the inclusion of the wholesale acquisition cost (WAC) of prescription drugs in consumer television ads, the state of Oregon is weighing whether or not to require a disclosure regarding the wholesale cost that […]
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