Although there is
bipartisan support for drug pricing reform and recent bills introduced in the
House and the Senate share some concepts, conservatives and pharmaceutical
manufacturers have found plenty to dislike about the drug pricing legislation
unveiled in September by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
In addition to
restructuring the Part D benefit to include an out-of-pocket cap, the Lower
Drug Costs Now Act (H.R. 3) would allow the HHS secretary to negotiate drug
prices for at least 250 drugs where there is no effective competition.
Manufacturers would be subject to certain transparency requirements and a
"noncompliance fee." Moreover, the bill would require that the
negotiated price should be no more than 1.2 times the weighted average of the
price in six other countries.
Speaking at AHIP's 2019
National Conference on Medicare, held Sept. 23-24 in Washington, D.C., American
Action Forum President Douglas Holtz-Eakin called H.R. 3 a "terrible
bill" and said the structure of an upper limit and a noncompliance penalty
is not negotiation but is "price fixing and extortion." He also
argued that its proposed inflation rebate would only incentivize manufacturers
to create high launch prices.
Also speaking at the
conference, PhRMA Senior Vice President for Policy and Research Jennifer Bryant
said that while Pelosi's bill is being presented as a "benign and fairly
incremental approach," the proposed structure is "not actually one of
negotiation at all and is about tying prices in the U.S. to prices internationally."
Moreover, she challenged AHIP, which released a statement in support of the
Pelosi bill, to make a case for an "alternative that reduces costs through
competition."
Meanwhile, Pelosi advisor
Wendell Primus made a last-minute appearance at the conference to outline the
bill and express the speaker’s confidence that it could come to a Senate vote
by the end of October.
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