Drug industry poised for rare political loss on prices

  • 📰 washingtonpost
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 60 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 27%
  • Publisher: 72%

South Africa News News

South Africa South Africa Latest News,South Africa South Africa Headlines

a sweeping bill as early as next week that, along with climate and deficit-reduction measures, would give Medicare powers to negotiate prices on select numbers of the costliest drugs for the first tim

e since Congress passed the prescription drug benefit for seniors in 2003.

Although it is limited in scope and wouldn’t go into effect until 2026, the measure if enacted would represent a significant step away from the government’s hands-off approach to drug pricing that has stoked drug company profits while fueling popular outrage. has shown for years that huge majorities of Americans from both parties support Medicare negotiation of drug prices.“Now, finally, like every other country in the world, we’ll be able to negotiate with drug companies on expensive drugs. It is a truly historic breakthrough many, many years in the making,” said David Mitchell, president and founder of Patients for Affordable Drugs, one of the advocacy groups that has been pushing Congress to act.

The industry fight over pricing is what has attracted the most heat. Drug companies have lobbied heavily to avoid anything that resembles government price controls for its products. They are on pace to break records in 2022 with $187 million in lobbying activity reported so far, with an army of 1,587 registered lobbyists ,The industry argues that price caps, negotiating or other government curbs on profits will sap the industry’s will to pursue new innovations.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 95. in ZA

South Africa South Africa Latest News, South Africa South Africa Headlines