Policy Proposals

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On this page, you’ll find our analysis on key state and federal pharmaceutical policy proposals, with a focus on providing the expected economic impact from these proposals.

July 28, 2021 Issues, Policy Proposals

By Peter J. Pitts, Robert Popovian, and Wayne Winegarden What happens when regulatory ambiguity displaces sound scientific guidance, deterring the legislative intent of Congress? This is precisely the situation regarding the FDA changing the regulatory rules of the road regarding a biosimilar’s strength versus its potency. It is a distinction with a difference – with the potential unintended consequence of disincentivizing both the development and uptake of biosimilars. It is also important to consider the implications of the legislative intent of...

July 9, 2021 Blog, Innovation, Policy Proposals

It’s time for your annual physical. You make an appointment with your doctor and mark the date on your calendar. But when the day arrives, you don’t set aside two to three hours or wait for a nurse to call your name in a sterile doctor’s office. You log onto your laptop from the comfort of your living room. The process takes less than 30 minutes. For many Americans, this was a reality amid the pandemic, when lots of care was delivered...

July 7, 2021 Issues, Policy Proposals

The myth about endangered, disappearing honeybees lives on — with potentially dire implications. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat, just reintroduced “Save the Bees” legislation that would eliminate farmers’ most advanced and effective defenses against crop-destroying pests in the name of preventing imaginary bee declines and preserving food security, which the bill would actually undermine. According to Blumenauer’s press release, “The United States lost an estimated one-third of its honeybee colonies between 2016 and 2018.” This sounds scary, except the Department of...

July 5, 2021 Blog, Coronavirus, Policy Proposals

America’s vaccination campaign is stalling. In late June, pharmacists and other providers were administering roughly 800,000 shots a day — down 80 percent from a peak of more than 4.6 million in mid April. Because of this precipitous decline, the Biden administration recently admitted it would miss its self-imposed goal of vaccinating at least 70 percent of American adults by Independence Day. So far, only 66 percent have gotten the jab. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) deserve much of...

June 24, 2021 Policy Proposals

Rebates and discounts are generally viewed as important competitive tools that lower prices for consumers, and rightly so. But consumers should beware when discounts create competitive restrictions that reduces their choices and increases their costs. Such is the case when dominant drug manufacturers use rebates to keep lower-priced drugs off the market – practices referred to as “rebate walls” or “rebate traps.” Fortunately, the Federal Trade Commission in a recent report to Congress suggests its poised to shine a spotlight...

June 22, 2021 Policy Proposals

The Kaiser Family Foundation recently surveyed more than 300 companies with more than 5,000 employees — and found that 83% believed that “a greater government role in providing coverage and containing costs would be better for their business.” They’re gravely mistaken. A health care system that features even more government control than the status quo would mean higher taxes and bigger recruitment challenges for companies — not to mention lower-quality care for their employees. Government could tighten its grip on our health...

May 28, 2021 Policy Proposals

A very bad regulation is coming. Here's the short of it. In 2016 Congress passed the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Law. That law directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to promulgate regulations for the mandatory labeling of "bioengineered" (or "genetically engineered") foods for human consumption. Consequently, the USDA issued the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standards (NBFDS) in December 2018. Although those regulations became effective in February 2019, the USDA allowed food manufacturers (the regulated entities) until Jan. 1, 2022, to come into full...

April 26, 2021 Blog, Policy Proposals

The U.S. House of Representatives is once again considering “The Lower Drug Costs Now Act”. It was a bad idea in the last Congress, and it is still bad policy today. If it becomes law, this Act (H.R. 3) empowers the federal government to negotiate prices on select drugs for the entire country. By statute, the government will base the negotiations on the prices charged in other nations. Since these nations impose stringent price controls on drugs, H.R. 3 is a...

April 19, 2021 Multimedia, Policy Proposals, Resources, Value

Watch PRI's Dr. Wayne Winegarden discuss the importance of improving competitions for biosimilars to increase access to these high value medications for more patients on two "Bending the Cost Curve" panel discussions hosted by State of Reform. https://youtu.be/oJTD34j-E-Y https://youtu.be/hu8sWIn3u_A...

April 15, 2021 Policy Proposals

Lawmakers in Colorado are trying to open their state's borders to prescription drugs from abroad. In 2019, they green-lit imports from Canada. They're still working on a plan to implement that policy that can garner federal approval. Then last week, legislators approved a bill that would allow Coloradans to import prescription drugs from other countries in addition to Canada, assuming the feds give the okay. More than a dozen states are making similar moves to permit drug importation. The professed goal of these efforts is to...

April 14, 2021 Issues, Policy Proposals

Policymakers across the globe are attempting to vilify the same private companies that have been invaluable partners in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. If these efforts are successful, it will be patients who are harmed the most. Globally, the World Trade Organization (WTO) wants to waive the patent rights for the companies that developed effective COVID-19 vaccines in record breaking time. Here in the U.S., states as diverse as Arkansas, California, and Texas are considering policies that use the pandemic as an...

April 12, 2021 Policy Proposals

For more than a century, National Geographic has produced a high-quality magazine that is well-grounded in science, history and culture. Lately, however, the editors have allowed agenda-driven articles based on flawed research to slip in between the covers. Take, for example, the latest piece by science writer Elizabeth Royte, which focused on the work of Jonathan Lundgren, who is portrayed as a hard-working scientist-farmer. He claims that widely used, state-of-the-art neonicotinoid insecticides “may be a threat to mammals,” as well as to...

March 31, 2021 Blog, Policy Proposals, Value

Despite the constant stream of dour news about drug prices, actions by employer-sponsored plans are providing reasons for hope. Instead of accepting the high-cost of originator biologics, companies as diverse as Disney, Costco, and CalPERS are “asserting their own desire to see biosimilars implemented among their employees.” Capturing these savings during the pandemic only increases their importance. Biologic medicines are high valued drugs that have meaningfully improved patient health, particularly for people living with cancer and auto-immune diseases. These medicines are also...

March 24, 2021 Policy Proposals

By Robert Popovian and Wayne Winegarden The time has come for us to think about incremental, evolutionary, and targeted changes to the healthcare system to reduce costs rather than focusing on grand bargains. It is time for practical solutions that will likely have broad consensus amongst patients, providers, employers, and policymakers. While the debate over the merits of private sector healthcare solutions versus government control of healthcare continues, a group of policy experts with support from the Arnold Ventures and Tobin Center...

September 29, 2020 Blog, Policy Proposals

Title: Big Pharma Backs Joe Biden, But People Don't Think He'll Fix Drug Pricing By Darragh Roche Former Vice President Joe Biden is winning the race for donations from Big Pharma but experts and industry stakeholders doubt his plans will successfully lower drug prices or address underlying issues in the industry. The pharmaceuticals and health products industry has donated more than $5.9 million to Biden's presidential campaign, according to OpenSecrets.org, a site run by the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political donations....

September 17, 2020 Policy Proposals

So far in his campaign for president, Democratic nominee Joe Biden has assiduously avoided endorsing Medicare for All — much to the chagrin of a growing number of Democrats. A recent Hill-HarrisX poll finds that 87 percent of Democrats favor Medicare for All. And numerous delegates to the convention voted against the Democratic platform because it didn’t call for a federal takeover of the country’s health insurance system. But don’t be fooled. This intraparty squabble is more a matter of style than...

September 15, 2020 Policy Proposals

President Trump and senior advisor Jared Kushner claim that the most favored nation executive order signed by the President over the weekend is necessary for drug pricing because “the U.S. shouldn’t pay more than other European countries for the same treatments.” This policy will make things worse, not better. If the president and his son-in-law applied their flawed logic consistently, then there is an even greater economic disparity that requires fixing. People living in Manhattan or San Francisco are paying more than other...

September 15, 2020 Policy Proposals

By: Henry Miller, M.S., M.D. and Andrew Fillat Recently, we co-authored an article about the thorny issues surrounding who would get access to the earliest doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. As we discussed, there are many possible options for setting priorities in terms of who should be vaccinated first. One obvious solution one would be to prioritize the people who are instrumental in mitigating the pandemic, with front-line medical personnel and staff at long-term care facilities going to the head of the line....

September 12, 2020 Policy Proposals

Earlier this month, the California legislature passed a bill that would make the Golden State the first in the nation to establish its own line of generic drugs. Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to sign the bill into law by the end of the month. The measure’s architects argue that a state-run generics firm would provide additional competition in the drug market and lead to lower prices. But that promise is empty. Generic drugs can’t get much cheaper. Setting up a...

September 9, 2020 Issues, Multimedia, Policy Proposals

If you’ve ever had a medical procedure and received a large bill from your hospital because, unknown to you, one of your doctors was not in your insurance network – that’s the subject of this podcast. On "Next Round," PRI senior fellow Wayne Winegarden discusses his recently released study on “Surprise Medical Billing.” He explains how it happens, why it happens, and the reforms that could prevent it. https://youtu.be/G4BvoVHT4so...