Pricing Debate

The other seven drugs on the initial list for negotiation are already heavily rebated and CMS could choose not to go much lower than current net prices, SSR Health report points out.

New tendering rules in Belgium aim to improve competition between biosimilars and originators, for example by setting contract durations for tendering contracts and limiting the criteria for such contracts.

Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress are not getting along on most topics these days. But when it comes to criticizing the pharmacy benefit management sector, they see eye-to-eye.

PBMs are able to leverage brand-to-brand competition across a variety of drug classes to lower costs, but that achievement and the presence of me-too drugs is more complicated than what might on its surface look like a clear win for the US health system.

As Medicare drug price negotiations creep closer to reality, industry leaders are turning attention to the challenges of implementation and commercial concerns.

Pharmacy benefit managers are increasingly making money off new types of fees tied to list prices, drug industry lobby says, highlighting importance of delinking all PBM compensation from the cost of medicines. Most Congressional proposals in play do not include delinkage provision.

DOJ and Chamber of Commerce attorneys argue over whether Chamber has standing to sue and whether AbbVie has suffered harm meriting a preliminary injunction to halt the program. With Medicare’s Oct. 2 deadline looming, Judge Newman said he would issue a decision ‘as quickly as we can.’

A provision in the pending legislation on PBMs that would allow the US FDA to provide qualitative and quantitative information to ANDA sponsors about reference product's inactive ingredients could save hundreds of millions in spending.

Pink Sheet reporter and editors discuss the somewhat novel pricing language in Regeneron’s deal with the US government to develop a COVID-19 monoclonal antibody, US FDA Commissioner Robert Califf hiring a new senior advisor, and optimizing dosing in cancer combination therapies.

Pink Sheet infographic details the district court judges and circuit courts that will be deciding the cases brought by industry against the IRA, breaking down the Democrat and Republican appointees as well as the arguments in each suit.

Flexibility included in guidance issued after many IRA lawsuits were filed put some of the arguments industry has made on shakier footing, legal experts explain.

CMS will monitor Medicare plans’ use of utilization management, and they are required to have the negotiated drugs on formulary, but the ‘ultimate question’ is how the plans will cover these negotiated drugs.

Medicare price renegotiation and the FTC’s scrutiny of biopharma acquisitions have suppressed sector stock prices. But the sector may not be the actual target.

An infographic looking at commercial factors for the 10 drugs chosen for Medicare price negotiation in 2026 under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The graphics below review the valuations of these drugs, both past and forecast, as well as their relative contributions to the top-lines of the companies that own them.

The first 10 drugs picked for price negotiation in the US Medicare program will all be unwilling trailblazers. But the position of Abbvie’s Imbruvica stands out as unique in several important ways.

Companies and organizations that signed the contracts deny any heavy-handedness, with Johnson & Johnson saying it worked closely with South Africa on vaccine supply, and the vaccine alliance Gavi noting that the COVAX Facility provided the country with more than nine million doses free of charge.