Proposal, which could be formally endorsed by MedPac this spring, would lower the payment rates for vaccines while simultaneously moving all preventative vaccine coverage to Medicare Part B. Commission signals further cuts to payment rate, through an average sales priced-based methodology that might eventually be recommended.

Drawing on 24 years as a legislator and another 16 years as a leading lobbyist for biopharma, Jim Greenwood sees an opportunity for industry to put drug pricing ‘behind us’ with a legislative compromise.

Report released as soon-to-be committee chair Ron Wyden, D-OR, assembles plans for drug pricing legislation in the new Democratic-controlled Senate.

International reference pricing has created narrow price corridors that can limit access to medicines and vaccines in lower income countries. The issue will start to impact higher income EU markets if US plans to introduce IRP come to fruition.

With new report looking at price increases rather than launch prices, ICER hopes to show it's possible to set limits without negatively impacting development of medicines. Report takes aim at some common drug industry arguments against price reforms and shows some net prices increasing faster than list prices, making it harder for pharma to divert blame to supply chain.

Daily round-up from the virtual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference: Novartis explains its PD-1 deal; Biogen partners with Apple; Sanofi and Merck discuss business development priorities; and why AbbVie is confident it can grow without relying on deals. 

A positive start to the year for healthcare stocks was accompanied, as usual, by drug price increases. This and the other issues that have been carried over from 2020 remain just as challenging.

The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference will be a virtual event but the industry's biggest business meeting will still lay the groundwork for the year ahead.

Razor-thin majorities in both chambers of Congress mean Democrats can’t enact a bold agenda, and the pandemic and attendant recession mean that the initial legislative focus won’t be on Rx issues.