Joe Biden wins, Big Pharma loses in major new bill in US

0


Health policy experts say the bill reflects the pharma industry’s weakening influence on the Democratic Party and that its main argument against price negotiation — that it stifles innovation — is no longer persuasive for the public.

A Kaiser Family Foundation poll in October found that 83 per cent of Americans, including 95 per cent of Democrats and 71 per cent of Republicans, want the federal Medicare health plan for seniors to negotiate prices, a provision of the bill.

The latest legislation is a tough pill to swallow for US drug companies.Credit:Tanya Macheda

“The pharma guys upped the ante in throwing everything but the kitchen sink against this,” said Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat who chairs the finance committee.

The industry’s powerful trade association, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), urged senators in a public letter to reject the bill. Its president, Stephen Ubl, told Politico that lawmakers who vote for it would not “get a free pass”.

“Few associations have all the tools of modern political advocacy at their disposal in the way that PhRMA does,” he said.

A PhRMA spokesperson said the group would continue to work with all lawmakers. He did not address Ubl’s comments about holding lawmakers accountable.

“We may not agree on every issue, but we believe engagement and dialogue is important to promoting a policy environment that supports innovation, a highly-skilled workforce and access to life-saving medicines for patients,” said spokesperson Brian Newell in an email.

The industry has long warned that price curbs in the US market would hamper companies’ ability to invest in developing new drugs.

With help from Democrats backed by the industry, the bill’s provision for drug price negotiations was scaled back in November, allowing Medicare to focus on an annual maximum of 20 of the costliest medicines by 2029, instead of an initial proposal to help reduce prices for 250 treatments.

Democratic staffers, industry executives and policy experts said that the bill’s broad popularity, combined with pressure on Democrats to pass meaningful legislation ahead of midterm elections in November, helped overcome the pharma industry campaigning.

“With this vote I would imagine Pharma realises they do not have a lot of friends left among Democrats,” said Larry Levitt, vice president for health policy at KFF.

Reuters

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.



Source link

Denial of responsibility! Planetconcerns is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.

Leave a comment