President Joe Biden yesterday announced a slew of drug pricing reforms—including changes that would radically alter Medicare program for seniors and people with disabilities. Here are the details and what BIO says about it.
The White House supports drug price controls,President Biden said in remarks yesterday.
Specifically, the White House is calling for allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, “for a subset of expensive drugs that don’t face any competition in the market,” says the fact sheet. “Medicare negotiators would be provided a framework for what constitutes a fair price for each drug, and there should be powerful incentives to make sure drug companies agree to a reasonable price.”
In other words, price controls—which, as we’ve explained again and again and again, won’t work.
He also repeated myths about the high costs of prescription drugs in the U.S.—which we’ve refuted.
He did acknowledge “the groundbreaking and lifesaving work that many pharmaceutical companies are doing,” especially during the pandemic, and called for an out-of-pocket cap for Medicare beneficiaries (which BIO supports).
But price controls will impede this lifesaving work in the future, by creating massive barriers to medical innovation and making it more difficult for small, innovative biotech companies to attract the investment they need to discover future vaccines, treatments, and cures.
Masters’ Message: BIO has made clear our desire to advocate for policy reforms that lower patient spending at the pharmacy counter without compromising scientific advancement and the support needed to usher in the next generation of cures and breakthrough medicines. Unfortunately, the president’s plan is no such reform. We hope the White House reconsiders this plan and look forward to working with the president and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to find bipartisan solutions that benefit patients today AND tomorrow. – Rich Masters, BIO’s Chief Public Affairs and Advocacy Officer
Read BIO’s full statement.
