As the U.S. Congress continues to pass laws that require federal agencies to issue rules to implement new statutory provisions, a group of lawmakers is reminding the agencies that it will be looking over their shoulders to ensure they don’t stray beyond the scope of the law or overstep their authority.
The bill the U.S. Senate passed to prune biologic patent thickets could be among the first in a legislative thicket aimed at prescription drug prices to make it through the Senate before the year ends.
A bipartisan bill aimed at limiting patent thickets on biologics moved a step closer to law July 11 when the Senate passed it with unanimous consent in an unexpected vote that came more than one-and-a-half years after the Judiciary Committee reported it favorably to the Senate floor. The Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act, S. 150, which would limit the type and number of patents that can be litigated under the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA), now awaits House action.
Just a day after the U.S. FTC released an interim report on harmful pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) practices and appeared before a House subcommittee that encouraged the commissioners to take enforcement action, the agency reportedly was preparing to file suit against the country’s three largest PBMs over their practices in negotiating insulin and other drug prices.
The redacted interim report released July 9 of an ongoing FTC investigation into pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) shed little, if any, new insight into PBM practices and how they impact availability and pricing of prescription drugs in the U.S.
Novo Nordisk A/S’ CEO Lars Jørgensen is set to be the next executive in the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s pharma parade of shame. HELP Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced June 24 that Jørgensen will testify before the committee Sept. 24 about his company’s U.S. pricing of its blockbuster semaglutide drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy.
The Biosecure Act missed its first chance at a congressional ride June 11 when the U.S. House Rules Committee didn’t include it, as many had expected, on the list of potential riders the House will consider for its version of the National Defense Authorization Act, a must-pass defense spending bill for fiscal 2025. But that doesn’t mean the bill will be stranded by the wayside.
With all the criticism the U.S. NIH has been getting of late, it’s not surprising that yet another reform proposal for the research agency is brewing in Congress. In unveiling a proposed framework to reform the NIH, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) recognized the critical role the agency plays in life-saving medical research and innovation.
The Biosecure Act missed its first chance at a congressional ride June 11 when the U.S. House Rules Committee didn’t include it, as many had expected, on the list of potential riders the House will consider for its version of the National Defense Authorization Act, a must-pass defense spending bill for fiscal 2025. But that doesn’t mean the bill will be stranded by the wayside.
The prior authorization practices of Medicare Advantage programs have drawn the ire of industry and physician societies alike recently, prompting the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to open a request for information in January 2024. Congress seems poised to take matters into its own hands, however, with legislation that would force these plans to work to speed up these prior authorization processes, a bill that has the enthusiastic support of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association.
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