drug pricing battles
Is Bernie hitting the limits of his bully pulpit?
For more than a year, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has used his perch atop the Senate health committee to haul the CEOs of pharmaceutical companies that make insulin, vaccines, and more before the panel with progressively more ambitious demands related to their pricing, Rachel writes. Now, he's demanding that Novo Nordisk cut its price for its novel, wildly popular diabetes and weight loss drugs.
But with fast-diminishing chances of advancing legislation to meet any of these goals, Sanders could be testing the limits of one Senate chairman's authority. He's already had limited success with pushing Novo to voluntarily lower insulin costs, and the drugmaker is by no means apologetic about blockbuster sales for its new weight loss product.
So what does success look like for Sanders? Rachel spoke with policy experts and drug pricing advocates about the legacy-building battles ahead.
pandemic policy
Slow spread of unity on a global pandemic agreement
Countries are back at the WHO negotiating table this week to hammer out an updated pandemic treaty. The initial goal — to require signing countries to follow a wide range of protocols, from reporting measures to vaccine sharing — was almost immediately hampered by competing interests. In particular, developing countries want assurances that vaccines and therapies will be equitably and affordably distributed, drawing concerns from the U.S. (which wants to stick to pre-negotiated agreements and donations) and representatives of major manufacturers.
The body has since missed a few self-imposed deadlines to finalize the treaty and numerous amendments are still up in the air. Four pivotal countries in the talks — the U.S., the United Kingdom, Colombia, and Brazil — came together to release a tentative agreement last week. While others are already asking for changes "it looked like a lot of progress to me," Jamie Love, who heads Knowledge Ecology International, said in an update from the ongoing meetings.
Yet the treaty's relatively slow movement has frustrated public health advocates who are increasingly convinced it won't have real-world implications for the next global outbreak. "We're seeing this split screen" with the U.S.'s avian flu outbreak and ongoing treaty negotiations, said Nigel Sizer, executive director of Preventing Pandemics at the Source. "There is a real prospect that there will not be an agreement…or that it will be so weak it will be useless."
Member countries are still planning to present a finalized agreement at the World Health Assembly.
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