drug pricing policy
Court deals drug companies another loss in Medicare suit
A federal judge ruled Wednesday against Boehringer Ingelheim's challenge to the new Medicare drug price negotiation program, handing the pharmaceutical industry its latest in a string of legal losses, Rachel Cohrs Zhang reports.
The latest blow came from a Connecticut district court. Boehringer — which makes one of the first drugs chosen for negotiation, Jardiance — argued that the drug pricing law is unconstitutional and Medicare also violated procedural laws.
So far, federal judges have ruled against the pharmaceutical industry in lockstep. However, a recent Supreme Court ruling that has implications for the latitude agencies have to interpret laws could create openings for the industry to bring other challenges. More from Rachel.
on the hill
Budget watchdogs talks premium tax credits
Chairs of the House Budget and Ways and Means committees asked CBO and tax committee staff to break down the costs of permanently boosting Obamacare premium tax credits, a hot-button topic as we head for a coverage cliff in 2026, when the extra subsidies would end.
The analysts came back recently with some top-line figures projecting ballooning costs, but millions more people covered by marketplace plans, Medicaid, and CHIP. The highlights:
- The budget deficit would increase by an eye-popping $335 billion over ten years. Any offset could take a serious bite out of the health care industry. For context, Democrats' controversial Medicare drug price negotiation program was only estimated to save $101 billion over a decade.
- However, for that price, as many as 3.4 million additional people would have health insurance of some sort.
Read the letter here.
industry intel
AbbVie dramatically spends to promote its drugs to doctors
AbbVie spent roughly $145.7 million last year to promote its drugs to health care providers, according to an analysis of newly released government data from STAT's Nick Florko and J. Emory Parker.
The massive sum spent by AbbVie, the maker of the mega blockbuster anti-inflammatory drug Humira, is the most a pharmaceutical company has spent on marketing to doctors since data on these payments became available in 2017.
The payments, made public by CMS, provide an insight into AbbVie's marketing in the immediate aftermath of the company losing its monopoly on Humira, which dominated the company's balance sheets for the better part of the last two decades. They show the company being far more aggressive in targeting doctors than competitors of comparable size. More from Nick and Emory.
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