New Trump Medicare drug-price rules denounced as political revenge by
industry
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[November 21, 2020]
(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald
Trump on Friday announced two rules aimed at lowering drug prices for
people 65 and older in the Medicare health insurance program, prompting
a biotechnology industry group to accuse the president of seeking
political revenge.
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.
The second rule would compel pharmacy benefit managers to pass
after-market rebates on to Medicare recipients as point-of-sale
discounts.
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.
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President Donald Trump speaks about prescription drug prices during
an appearance in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in
Washington, U.S., November 20, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
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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