Good Day BIO: Democrats push ahead on anti-science price controls

Senate Democrats released their latest plan for drug price controls yesterday—we have details and BIO’s take. Plus, Italy’s worst drought in 70 years is ravaging risotto rice—but biotech offers solutions for crops and climate change. (561 words, 2 minutes, 48 seconds)

Democrats push ahead on anti-science price controls

Details of the latest proposal for drug price controls emerged yesterday as Senate Democrats moved the plan forward—here’s what we know and what BIO says about it.

ICYMI: Democrats submitted their plan for drug price controls to the Senate Parliamentarian yesterday, seeking to classify the measure as “budget reconciliation,” so it can pass the chamber with a simple majority.

What we know: The proposal allows Medicare to set prices for certain prescription drugs, but the fixed prices would not apply to people with private insurance, Reuters said. The government could set prices on 20 single supplier drugs on which it spends the most—requiring HHS to set prices, a stipulation intended to force future administrations to apply price controls, The New York Times explained.

What drugs could be impacted? Bristol-Myers Squibb’s top-selling cancer drug Revlimid, AbbVie’s rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira, and Bayer’s blood thinner Xarelto, Reuters said, citing the Kaiser Family Foundation.

BIO’s response: “Instead of building and strengthening America’s biotechnology ecosystem, which has proven critical over the last two years in slowing the COVID-19 pandemic and, in doing so, saved American taxpayers roughly one trillion dollars in healthcare costs and tens of millions of lives globally, the legislation released today would dismantle our innovation engine and our global competitiveness, leaving Americans dependent on overseas innovators,” BIO President and CEO Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath said yesterday. “The ‘solutions’ put forward today are anything but. They’re not just a step backward—they could propel us light years back into the dark ages of biomedical research.”

What happens next: The measure will be bundled with a tax and climate spending package that Democrats want to put to a vote as early as this month.

Drought ravages risotto—but biotech could help

Italy’s worst drought in 70 years is devastating the current crop of premium rice for risotto and adding to food security concerns. Biotechnology offers short-term and long-term solutions.

What’s happening: Limited precipitation and temperatures 3-4 degrees above normal have shrunk the Po, Italy’s largest river, drying up rice flats where Arborio rice has been grown for centuries, the Associated Press reports. Italy declared an emergency in five northern regions Tuesday due to drought affecting “30-40% percent of the seasonal harvest and half the livestock farming in the Po Valley,” VOA reports.

It's going to get worse: “Climate change is indeed exacerbating drought in many parts of the world, increasing its frequency, severity and duration,” says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)—and we’re seeing this around the world, including in the U.S.

In the short term, we can make crops more resilient with gene editing, which can make drought-resistant rice (and other crops), as well as improve the nutrition of rice.

In the long term, biotech solutions can help us mitigate climate change, especially by reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and reducing the footprint of agriculture and manufacturing.

The big picture: Record heat and drought across the U.S. (and around the world) are affecting crops and food supply—and current food supply chain issues are nothing compared to what we’ll see if we don’t get climate change under control.

President Biden’s Thursday: Presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor, to 17 Americans, including living luminaries like Simone Biles, Meghan Rapinoe, and Denzel Washington, and posthumous honorees including John McCain and Steve Jobs.

What’s Happening on Capitol Hill: Officially recess, but we're keeping an eye on activity on drug price controls.