Good Day BIO: It’s D-Day for drug pricing

It’s a critical week for both drug price controls and climate. Here’s what you need to know and how you can take action for patients and the planet. (738 words, 3 minutes, 41 seconds)

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Despite what you may have heard, don’t let your guard down yet—drug pricing is still a major threat, and the next 24-48 hours will be critical. Here’s what happened last week and how you can weigh in. 

What happened last week: It looked like drug price controls were dropped from the draft social spending bill released last week—and from the White House framework.

But not so fast: “Democrats are zeroing in on a deal to lower prescription drug prices that the party hopes it could add to President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion social spending bill as soon as Monday,” reports POLITICO. 

What we know so far: “The latest draft effort includes a redesign of Medicare Part D, drug negotiation and rebates, said a source with direct knowledge of the effort,” continues POLITICO. “It’s not as expansive as the House’s landmark ‘H.R. 3’ drug bill, but is based on the same parameters.” 

“While the stated intent behind these proposals is to lower costs, they would instead likely damage the biotechnology industry’s critical research and development efforts over several decades, destroying hope for the patients who need innovation most and exerting government control over patient access to future therapies,” says Tim Walbert, President and CEO of BIO member Horizon Therapeutics—who lives with a rare disease. 

“The White House Council of Economic Advisers paints a grim picture about the impact of government price controls, predicting that as many as 100 fewer drugs will come to market in just the next decade—many of them for rare diseases,” continues Walbert in Morning Consult. 

“At the end of the day, it may mean that patients will have fewer choices,” Michele Oshman, VP for External Affairs at BIO and Executive Director of the Council of State Bioscience Associations, said recently on the I am BIO Podcast. “Cutting the innovator's ability to recoup R&D costs, and so limiting that reimbursement for medicines, is going to result in fewer medicines.”  

This is the time to take action. Visit www.SaveCures.com to contact your Members of Congress and tell them why drug price controls will harm patients and future cures.

More Health Care News: 

STAT News: FDA authorizes Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11
“Before the vaccine becomes widely available, it will also need to be recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The decision on that recommendation is made after a meeting of an expert committee, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP. The CDC director must then approve ACIP’s recommendations. That committee is scheduled to meet on Nov. 2.”

‘Real-world action’ requires biotech solutions

G20 leaders made noteworthy climate commitments over the weekend—but it’s critical that COP26 ends with a real action plan. Whatever happens, to meet our climate goals, we’re going to need biotechnology.

To catch you up: G20 leaders agreed to end “public finance for new unabated coal power generation abroad” and “to contribute to keeping a 1.5 degrees Celsius limit on global temperature rise,” per the White House. 

But: “[T]he statement included no new commitments on curbing the use of coal domestically,” reports The New York Times. Furthermore, “existing country commitments put the world on a path to far higher levels of warming, with the global average temperature rising by 2.7 degrees Celsius by 2100." 

Also worth noting: G20 leaders agreed to a 15% Global Minimum Tax on large corporations and pledged to vaccinate 70% of the world against COVID-19 by mid-2022. 

Now, all eyes are on COP26 as the last chance to flesh out an action plan. “We have to move from talk and debate and discussion to concerted, real-world action on coal, cars, cash, and trees. Not more hopes and targets and aspirations, valuable though they are, but clear commitments and concrete timetables for change,” said Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the UK, one of the hosts of the talks. 

“Real-world action” requires biotechnology—from producing low-carbon or zero-carbon fuels and otherproducts, to enhancing carbon sequestration and reducing the footprint of agriculture, biotech offers some of our best solutions for climate. 

The bottom line: “To help solve climate change, look to the biosciences,” says BIO’s Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath. 

Read: How your company can get involved in COP26

President Biden’s Monday: Participating in COP26 at Glasgow. 

What’s Happening on Capitol Hill: All eyes are on Capitol Hill as Congress starts yet another week negotiating infrastructure and social spending—we’ll let you know as soon as there’s news to report.