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The legislation has drawn the ire of drugmakers and industry groups alike, who contend the price negotiations are more akin to price controls. Another common refrain centers around the law’s potential to stifle biopharma innovation...But the reality may not be so bad for the industry, with the true influence of the law on biopharma companies being marginal...the legislation is set to empower Medicare to set prices for 10 medicines in 2026, with that number increasing to 60 by 2029. In 2026 and 2027, Medicare will only oversee Part D drug prices...While the bill addresses some 64 million Americans enrolled in Medicare, it fails to account for the more than 150 million Americans and their families engaged with the private insurance market...READ MORE

CVS Health has asked Gov. Phil Scott to veto H.353 — a last-ditch effort to block a bill it says would raise prescription drug costs for Vermonters with private insurance...H.353 started out as a bill to make drugs more affordable by regulating pharmacy benefits managers, third-party companies that negotiate medication coverage plans for consumers with private insurers. But revisions of the bill, as it worked its way through the House and Senate, would have all but guaranteed that specialty drug prescriptions given to patients in health care settings, including expensive cancer medication, would be filled at the University of Vermont Health Network’s pharmacy in Burlington, rather than through cheaper mail-order pharmacies that insurers prefer...READ MORE

The petition, going to Senator Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, pleads Congress to take action...Both Senators have cosponsored legislation to cap out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35...Senators Cortez Masto and Rosen also support giving Medicare more power to negotiate drug prices, and they are pushing for penalties that would keep drug companies from increasing prices faster than the rate of inflation..."I've seen it in my own family with my grandmother who had to make the decision whether she could put food on the table or pay for her drugs," said Senator Cortez Masto. "She was living off of Social Security after she retired. No senior, nobody should have to go through that."...READ MORE

Once again, government-run healthcare crashed and burned in California...Yes, it died with a whimper, failing to be voted on before a deadline, which for any other policy wouldn’t have been that big of a deal. But for single-payer — the Holy Grail of bad progressive ideas — it was epic...The buildup was extraordinary. After Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, killed single-payer unceremoniously without a vote in 2017, calling that measure “woefully incomplete,” which it was, expectations were high this time around...READ MORE

The main U.S. drug lobby has said it will push back against the legislation, which includes policies that drugmakers have opposed for decades...The pharmaceutical industry is gearing up to minimize the effect of major drug legislation passed by Congress on Friday, the first time in many years lawmakers have overcome the drug lobby’s opposition to limits on their pricing power...the House of Representatives passed the Inflation Reduction Act in a 220-207 party-line vote, sending the bill to President Joe Biden...The bill would allow Medicare to negotiate prices on up to 60 drugs by 2029...The pharma industry spent heavily to lobby against the bill and, after decades of forestalling action to curtail the industry’s pricing power in the U.S., its main lobbying group signaled the fight would continue...READ MORE

Over the past few years, the Food and Drug Administration has come increasingly under scrutiny for its program to grant speedy approvals to drugs that show early signs of benefiting patients with life-threatening diseases...These so-called accelerated approvals have ushered in many new therapies, particularly for cancer. But they have also ginned up substantial controversy in several cases...because they brought to market high-priced therapies that weren’t proven to help people...Drugmakers have also faced criticism for dragging their feet on the follow-up studies meant to definitively show their medicines work...Soon, the FDA could receive new authority to compel pharmaceutical companies to follow through with these confirmatory studies and to order withdrawal of drugs that fall short of their initial promise...READ MORE

With several efforts to resurrect American drug manufacturing already underway, congressional members on both sides of the aisle are setting their sights on one of the nation’s chief economic rivals...The Senate has signed off on innovation and competition legislation designed to boost American competitiveness, restore the country’s manufacturing base and curb its reliance on China for critical supplies—especially drugs and medical devices...The bill encourages the U.S., the EU and other European countries to work together on “joint strategies to diversify reliance on supply chains away from the People’s Republic of China,” and “especially” so in the medical and pharmaceutical fields...READ MORE

...Republican and Democratic senators met with the chamber's parliamentarian to discuss whether the bill's proposal for Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs with manufacturers has a direct impact on government spending or tax revenue, as reconciliation rules require...But these are not negotiations. They're price controls. The bill's text sets maximum prices that the government will pay — and threatens confiscatory taxes for drug companies that refuse to comply...it will mean that fewer cutting-edge drugs are available to American patients...price controls on prescription drugs are unnecessary. Even as the price of just about everything else in our economy has soared in the past year, drug prices have been relatively flat...If lawmakers want to reduce patient drug costs meaningfully, they should train their focus on pharmacy benefit managers...PBMs keep a cut of the savings they extract and send another cut to the insurer, which may use that cut to lower overall premiums...READ MORE

The Equitable Community Access to Pharmacist Services Act (H.R. 7213) is legislation to help ensure that patients can receive point-of-service testing, treatment, and vaccine services provided by pharmacists for COVID-19, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, and strep throat. ASHP, as an executive committee member of the Future of Pharmacy Care Coalition, is working aggressively to secure congressional support for H.R. 7213. You can help by sending an email to your representative asking them to co-sponsor the bill. Personalize the email provided in ASHP’s online advocacy center with examples from your practice that demonstrate your critical role on the healthcare team...READ MORE

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a series of pharmacy benefit management reforms into law...including bills that don’t discriminate against pharmacies they don’t have a relationship with...The signing of the three bills...comes less than a week after the Federal Trade Commission was deadlocked on whether to investigate PBM contracting practices...“For too long, unlicensed pharmacy benefit managers have been able to engage in practices that drive up costs for Michiganders whose lives and health depend on critical prescription drugs like insulin,” said Whitmer in a statement Wednesday. “This bill brings much-needed transparency to our healthcare system.”...READ MORE