The Advanced Medical Technology Association (Advamed) and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) have teamed up on a friend-of-the-court brief for the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming hearing on twin cases that examine the question of a defendant’s state of mind when filing claims with federal health programs. Advamed and BIO argue that the existing judicial approach is critical to ensuring that companies in the life sciences are not subject to treble damages when acting reasonably in connection with products reimbursed by federal health programs, adding that an overturn of existing judicial practice would stifle innovation at the cost of patient access to life-saving medical therapies.
During the first round of discussion at its two-day hearing on a World Trade Organization proposal to expand the intellectual property (IP) waiver from COVID-19 vaccines to diagnostics and therapies, the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) got an earful from both sides of the debate.
During the first round of discussion at its two-day hearing on a World Trade Organization proposal to expand the intellectual property (IP) waiver from COVID-19 vaccines to diagnostics and therapies, the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) got an earful from both sides of the debate.
A trio of proposed Medicare drug payment models that made a Feb. 14 debut in the U.S. is playing to mixed reviews. Two of the models to be tested by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center seem to “address the real problems underlying prescription drug pricing – patient out-of-pocket expenses and better payment systems that reward the value a medicine brings to the patient and the overall health care system,” said John Murphy, chief policy officer for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. But he called the third model, which is expected to restrict Medicare payment for some Part B drugs that have indications with accelerated approval, “an attack on the accelerated approval pathway,” which Congress mandated to spur investment and innovation in areas of unmet medical need.
Upheaval at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) has resulted in a sudden leadership change. Rachel King, a longtime member of the organization’s leadership and co-founder and former CEO of Glycomimetics Inc., will serve as interim president and CEO.
The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) confirmed Oct. 10 that its president and CEO, Michelle McMurry-Heath, is currently on leave from the trade group.
News that the U.S. FTC is finally going to reexamine the role of pharmaceutical benefit managers (PBMs) and their impact on prescription drug prices and availability is playing to applause from several sectors that have been complaining for years about PBM practices.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee met April 5 to review the user fee agreements for the drug and device centers, but one member of the committee was quite vocal about the ever-growing volume of user fees. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said the pace with which user fees are increasing suggests that the FDA is growing increasingly independent of Congress.
The push for legislation that would lower prescription drug prices in the U.S. has mounted in recent months, but support for Medicare pricing negotiations has faltered in the past few weeks. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) is the latest Senate Democrat to signal his aversion to giving the government the authority to negotiate prices with drugmakers, breathing new life into hopes that the pharmaceutical industry will yet again escape a mechanism that critics say would suppress innovation at the expense of patients in desperate need of state-of-the-art therapies.
As life begins to return to a semblance of normal in many parts of the world, COVAX cautioned countries July 1 against adopting policies that favor specific COVID-19 vaccines.
