Senate HELP Panel’s Confounded Markup Points To Challenges Ahead For Chairman Sanders
Executive Summary
Session on PBM and generic legislation brought to a halt by Republican objections to amendments targeting FDA disclosure of inactive ingredient concentrations in brands, method-of-use patents, and using REMS to extend patent protection.
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Senate Committee Passes Moderate PBM Reform, But Has Its Eyes On Stronger Policies
Delinking pharmacy benefits managers’ compensation from the prices of drugs received bipartisan rhetorical support at a HELP markup, but the panel only cleared less drastic PBM reforms along with generic and orphan-drug focused policies. Approved amendments tackled step therapy, pharma transparency and PBM gag clauses, among other topics.
‘Why Stop At Insulin?’ Senate Democrats Want More List Price Moves From Pharma
Pharma was unable to punt all the drug pricing blame to pharmacy benefits managers at the 10 May Senate HELP hearing on affordable insulin, though the PBM-focused fury was more bipartisan.