Drug Pricing Takes Over User Fee Hearing – And That Might Be Good News For Industry

Innovator companies are not generally happy when congressional committees focus on the cost of prescription drugs, particularly in hearings supposedly focused on other subjects. But when a Senate committee discussing the US FDA user fee reauthorization process devotes considerable time to the theme of pricing, it probably isn’t such a bad thing.

Not so bad news
Drug pricing discussions during an FDA hearing are not necessarily always bad news. • Source: Alamy

Biopharma companies are not, as a rule, happy when drug pricing is the focus of a US congressional hearing – and doubly so when the topic is supposed to be something else, like the reauthorization of the key user fee funding authorities for the US Food and Drug Administration.

So, when Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Patty Murray, D-WA, made clear during her opening statement during an 5 April hearing on the “UFA” agreements that she...

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