President Donald Trump lashed out at Pfizer and the drug industry in a tweet Monday following a report that New York-based Pfizer had raised prices on a number of its drugs.
“Pfizer & others should be ashamed that they have raised drug prices for no reason,” Trump tweeted. “They are merely taking advantage of the poor & others unable to defend themselves, while at the same time giving bargain basement prices to other countries in Europe & elsewhere. We will respond!”
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
The Financial Times reported last week that the drugmaker had increased prices on about 100 drugs, despite promises from the administration that the industry would implement “massive” price reductions.
Still, Eugene Gu, a physician and prominent critic of the Trump administration, tweeted a response pointing out that Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar had raised prices of insulin products as a pharmaceutical industry executive. Azar worked at Eli Lilly & Co. from 2007 until 2017 and was appointed president of the company’s US division in 2012, having started as the Indianapolis-based drugmaker’s top lobbyist and spokesman. Despite the administration’s pledge to work toward lower drug prices, between December 2012 and November 2017, the price of Lilly’s Humalog Kwikpen doubled, from around $50 to more than $105, according to Bloomberg.
How Trump plans to respond to Pfizer’s action is unclear. However, though the administration released a white paper in May detailing several proposals for bringing prices down, when they would be implemented is likewise uncertain as they may need congressional approval.
Still, one program related to drug pricing that the administration had implemented appears to be on the rocks. Citing internal emails, Politico reported Monday that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services quietly stopped a pay-for-performance program for Novartis’ CAR-T therapy Kymriah after it scrutiny from the Department of Health and Human Services and congressional investigations. In particular, congressional Democrats inquired as to whether Novartis’ $1.2 million payment to former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen played a role in the arrangement.
Under the deal, Medicaid would pay for Kymriah in pediatric leukemia – whose list price for the disease is $475,000, not including supportive care costs – as long as patients responded within 30 days of treatment. Politico reported that while such deals still exist between Novartis and private insurers, CMS canceled the program after seven months amid concerns over influence from the Swiss drugmaker. The pay-for-performance deal was announced at the time of Kymriah’s approval for acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children and young adults, in August 2017, and predates Azar’s appointment as HHS secretary.
Photo: IvelinRadkov, Getty Images
