Pricing Debate

The US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Vinod Mitta discussed the agency’s latest thinking on the implementation of Medicare drug price negotiations at the Financial Times Pharma Summit.

The difficulty of finding and retaining patients with orphan diseases translates into higher marketing costs and adds to other restrictions that limit the attractiveness of some orphan drugs. Will the IRA exacerbate matters?

The US Federal Trade Commission is taking a stand against rebating and bundling practices pharma companies use in negotiations with payers as it seeks to block Amgen’s $28bn acquisition of Horizon.

R&D heads of Takeda, Amgen, Lilly and Novartis discuss some of the tectonic forces shaping the biopharma sector and the unintended consequences of the IRA on small molecule innovation. Advances in the neurodegenerative diseases segment amid impressive data from donanemab was another key talking point.

The second week of first-quarter earnings featured AbbVie’s announcement and a harsh stock price reaction. There were also far-reaching implications behind the results.

J&J’s Q1 earnings announcement included challenges like the loss of exclusivity and competitive pressures, but the price renegotiation associated with the Inflation Reduction Act was not among them.

The first drugs expected to face US Medicare drug price negotiations, according to a new analysis, will have had an average commercial life span of 15 years.

Multiple payment models, including differential pricing for pooled purchases, and technology-based healthcare platforms are some of the ways to build a patient-centric ecosystem said officials from Roche, VCs and non-government bodies at a recent conference

Sanofi is the last of three big insulin makers to offer its top-selling insulin at the same out-of-pocket cost regardless of patients’ insurance coverage, but calls for other health care players to make concessions as well.

Pharma business development executives and venture capital investors shared their thoughts on the Inflation Reduction Act at Biocom’s Global Life Science Partnering and Investor Conference in San Diego.

The drug pricing watchdog said in its revised report that Alzheimer’s therapy Leqembi (lecanemab) meets cost-effectiveness thresholds at $8,900-$21,500, below Eisai/Biogen’s $26,500 list price.

Some biotech leaders say IRA policies don’t feel consequential yet, though small companies could face impacts from R&D and M&A decision making at big pharmas.