Rx Industry Under Multifront Siege

By John McManus, The McManus Group

The latest regulatory salvo from the Trump administration on Medicare Part D and the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives have the pharmaceutical industry scrambling to fight a multifront war to defend market-based pricing in the United States. In just the last six weeks, the Trump administration has fired off sweeping proposals overhauling reimbursement of Medicare Part B for physician-administered drugs (to be based on foreign reference prices) and has now issued a proposed rule substantially changing the Part D outpatient drug program.  

Meanwhile, Democrats are preparing to take the reins of power in the House, and a priority is increased oversight and control over the pharmaceutical industry. They are preparing investigations to hold companies accountable for price increases and proposing a bevy of legislation that would fundamentally alter how drugs are paid for in Medicare and beyond.

All sectors of the industry are under siege. The varied proposals are testing the industry’s ability to marshal allies in the patient and provider communities and build political support needed to defeat or substantially alter proposals meant to address an increasingly bipartisan consensus that something dramatic needs to be done about prescription drug pricing.