Drug pricing

Faced with potential monetary fines, Johnson & Johnson said Monday it is abandoning a proposed 340B rebate plan for hospitals involving two of its blockbuster drugs, Stelara and Xarelto.

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ aggressive targeting of Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy pricing, and not Eli Lilly’s rival drugs, is not fair.

In a Tuesday Senate hearing on Novo Nordisk’s drug pricing, CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen said he would be willing to sit down with the three largest pharmacy benefit managers who committed that they would expand coverage of Ozempic and Wegovy if Novo lowers its list prices for the blockbuster drugs.

Many Big Pharma companies including Pfizer, Merck and BMS make the drugs that some researchers expect to be selected by CMS for next year’s Medicare price negotiations alongside analysts’ top pick, Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic.

New revelations from the showdown between Novo Nordisk’s CEO and Bernie Sanders’ Senate health committee Tuesday; PhRMA’s legal victory in IRA case; the federal interest rate cut and anticipated approval for schizophrenia.

Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster type 2 diabetes medication is a sure bet for the list of the next 15 drugs whose Medicare prices will be negotiated in 2025 and go into effect in 2027, according to analysts and academics.

A senior senator has asked the CEOs of both companies to provide information about the limits they are putting on 340B drug pricing for hospitals.

In a high-profile showdown Tuesday with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Senate health committee, Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen will be asked to defend the drugs’ U.S. monthly list prices of $969 and $1,349, respectively.

A lawsuit filed by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which claims the Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program is unconstitutional, now goes back to a lower Texas court.

While unlikely to pass this year, given the Democrats’ control over the White House and Senate, the proposed legislation might be a harbinger of the Republicans’ agenda next year for the Inflation Reduction Act should they win the November elections.