• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

Drug Delivery Business

  • Clinical Trials
  • Research & Development
  • Drug-Device Combinations
  • FDA
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Policy

Senate drug price hearing turns into debate over healthcare reform

June 19, 2017 By Sarah Faulkner

Prescription drugsMembers of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee gathered last week to discuss the rising costs of prescription drugs. But the hearing quickly morphed into a heated back-and-forth between senators over the Republican’s efforts to reform healthcare.

Democratic senators, including Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), used their time to criticize their Republican counterparts for writing the GOP healthcare bill behind closed doors.

“I know you’re a part of the discussion. You know what’s in it, we have no idea. We haven’t seen it,” Murray said to chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).

“Let’s be blunt,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) reportedly said. “It is insane to have a bipartisan hearing on drug prices while the GOP is writing a secret bill to take away prescription drug benefits.”

Murphy agreed, pointing out that their conversation about drug pricing may be irrelevant if the GOP’s healthcare bill does not include prescription drug coverage as an essential health benefit.

Lawmakers sat through presentations from Dan Mendelson, president of Avalere Health; Allan Coukell, senior director of health programs at Pew Charitable Trusts; Gerard Anderson, professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; and Paul Howard, from the Manhattan Institute.

The pharmaceutical industry has been called out by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for its drug pricing practices. Companies set list prices for their medicines, which are not necessarily guided by market forces, Anderson reportedly told the committee.

After a company sets a drug’s list price, pharmacy benefit managers and 3rd party payers negotiate for lower prices. But Anderson pointed out that the list price can be used to determine the percentage of cost sharing that patients pay.

The rebates that payers receive during the negotiation process aren’t shared with patients, but consumers still benefit from them, Mendelson said, because they “leverage effective price competition.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) disagreed, saying that he doubted rebates are “actually bringing benefits” to American consumers.

The experts also discussed the possibility of value-based contracts – deals that link the price of a drug to particular outcomes. Although health plans seem interested in pursuing value-based contracts, Coukell said it is unclear whether or not those types of plans would reduce spending.

Last week, senior officials in the Trump administration reportedly met to discuss an executive order regarding drug prices. News reports revealed that the working group is consider proposals that largely reflect the agenda of the industry’s lobbying group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA).

Joe Grogan, a former lobbyist for Gilead Sciences (NSDQ:GILD), is the associate director of health programs for the Office of Management and Budget and has lead the working group.

The group reportedly discussed speeding up the drug approval process at the FDA and extending monopoly protection rights for drugs in foreign markets.

Some of the documents produced from the meeting seem to directly reflect policy papers written by PhRMA, according to Kaiser Health News. The document from last week’s meeting includes a subtitle, “Encourage Use of 21st Century Tools for Drug Evaluation, Review and Approval” and calls for the FDA to use less rigorous standards for clinical trials to fast-track drug approvals.

The document cited a paper with the same subtitle and same regulatory recommendation, published  by PhRMA in March last year.

Want to stay on top of DDBN content? Sign up for our e-mail newsletter for a weekly dose of drug-device news

Filed Under: Featured, Food & Drug Administration (FDA), Pharmaceuticals, Policy, Wall Street Beat Tagged With: Capitol Hill, Gilead Sciences

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

  • Flat Medical partners with Mercury Medical on smart syringe distribution
  • Glucotrack to effect a reverse stock split
  • Medtronic unveils ‘MiniMed’ as name for soon-to-be separated Diabetes unit
  • Insulet, Marvel collab to unveil comic book hero with type 1 diabetes
  • Insulet rolls out new Omnipod 5 iPhone app for use with Dexcom G7

Primary Sidebar

“ddb
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest news and trends happening now in drug delivery.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.

Footer

Drug Delivery Business News Logo

MassDevice Medical NETWORK

MassDevice
DeviceTalks
Medical Tubing + Extrusion
Medical Design & Outsourcing
MedTech100 Index
Drug Discovery & Development
Pharmaceutical Processing World
Medical Design Sourcing
R&D World

DRUG DELIVERY BUSINESS NEWS

Subscribe to Drug Delivery’s E-Newsletter
Advertise with us
About
Contact us
Privacy
Listen to our Weekly Podcasts

Copyright © 2025 · WTWH Media LLC and its licensors. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media.

Privacy Policy | RSS