Wall Street analysts said there was little chance the new rules
would be put into place, in part because they expect legal
challenges by pharmaceutical and pharmacy benefit manager trade
organizations. The incoming Biden administration is unlikely to take
up the rules, they said.
The Biotechnology Innovation Organization, which represents biotech
companies, said a Trump rule indexing U.S. prices to foreign drug
prices was politically motivated because a coronavirus vaccine was
not announced before the Nov. 3 election as the president had
promised it would be.
"This is being done as retribution against America’s researchers
because they refused to put the president’s political interests
ahead of science and patient safety in their efforts to develop a
vaccine for COVID-19," BIO said.
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The second rule would compel pharmacy benefit managers to pass
after-market rebates on to Medicare recipients as point-of-sale
discounts.
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The Trump administration has discussed these and other policy changes to lower
drug prices over the past four years but has not made substantive progress.
PhRMA, a trade group for pharmaceutical companies, called the rules "a reckless
attack on the companies working around the clock to end this pandemic" and said
it was looking at options to block them.
The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, which represents pharmacy
benefit managers that run the Medicare prescription drug plans targeted by the
rebate rule, said it is exploring litigation.
The group said in a statement that the rule, which had been proposed and then
left to languish by the administration last year after the Congressional Budget
Office said it would cost taxpayers $177 billion, circumvents the regular
rule-making process.
(Reporting by Caroline Humer, Editing by Franklin Paul and Cynthia Osterman)
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