Pfizer CEO calls US drug price plan 'negotiation with a gun to your
head'
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[May 12, 2023]
By Michael Erman and Bhanvi Satija
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Pfizer Inc Chief Executive Albert Bourla called U.S.
plans to negotiate drug prices for its Medicare health program
"negotiation with a gun to your head" and said he expects drugmakers to
sue in an attempt to halt the process.
"It is not negotiation at all. It is price setting," Bourla said at a
Reuters newsmaker event on Thursday, referring to the Biden
Administration’s signature drug pricing reform, part of the Inflation
Reduction Act (IRA). The law aims to save $25 billion through price
negotiations by 2031 for Americans who pay more for medicines than any
other country.
The pharmaceutical industry says the law, passed last year, will result
in a loss of profits that will force drugmakers to pull back on
developing groundbreaking new treatments.
The companies have begun laying the groundwork to fight the U.S. plan,
Reuters reported earlier this week.
"I think that there will be legal action," he said, adding that he was
not sure if that would stop the plan before new prices would go into
effect in 2026. Bourla said he is also not optimistic that Congress will
act to change the law.
Drugs likely to be among the first subject to negotiation include
Pfizer's breast cancer treatment Ibrance and the blood thinner Eliquis,
which Pfizer shares with Bristol Myers Squibb.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/May/12/images/ads/current/bauer_sda_PROMGRAD_2023.png)
Bourla did acknowledge some positive aspects of the law for patients,
such as lower out-of-pocket costs for medicines.
Officials at the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which
will oversee drug price talks, did not immediately respond to a request
for comment.
Bourla is looking to shift Pfizer's focus from the COVID-19 vaccines and
treatment that put the company at the forefront of the pandemic response
and led to a once-in-a-lifetime surge in revenue.
The company is in the midst of a steep but expected fall in COVID
product sales and is also preparing for declining revenue in coming
years for some of its top-selling drugs as they begin to face
competition from cheap generics.
As a result, investors are looking for Pfizer to produce new blockbuster
drugs that can pull in billions every year, either from the company's
own pipeline of medicines in development or through deals.
Bourla led Pfizer as the New York-based drugmaker raced alongside German
partner BioNTech to develop a vaccine for COVID as much of the world
locked down in 2020. The company also developed Paxlovid, a life-saving
antiviral treatment for the disease.
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![](../images/051123PIX/health63.jpg)
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla talks during a
press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der
Leyen after a visit to oversee the production of the Pfizer-BioNtech
COVID-19 vaccine at the factory of U.S. pharmaceutical company
Pfizer in Puurs, Belgium April 23, 2021. John Thys /Pool via
REUTERS/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/May/12/images/ads/current/graue_lda_preowned_Buickencore_011323.jpg) The COVID products drove Pfizer's
revenue to record levels, topping $100 billion in 2022 and $80
billion in 2021.
"Pfizer is giving all the profits that we made from COVID in '21 and
'22 and what we will make in '23 to acquire technology and products
that we believe will allow us to battle cancer," he said, calling
the effort the drugmaker's "next moonshot."
'NOT ABOUT ABORTION PILLS'
Bourla has overseen a string of acquisitions to bolster Pfizer's
drug pipeline, headlined by the $43 billion deal for Seagen, which
makes complex targeted cancer therapies.
The drugmaker also spent billions on its purchases of migraine
drugmaker Biohaven Pharmaceutical, ulcerative colitis drug developer
Arena Pharmaceuticals, and Global Blood Therapeutics, maker of a
sickle cell disease treatment.
Bourla said he anticipates only doing modestly-sized deals in the
near-term as he concentrates on the Seagen integration.
As the company works to develop new drugs, Bourla raised concerns
about a recent ruling by a judge in Texas that suspended abortion
pill mifepristone's 2000 approval by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration. The U.S. Supreme Court put that order on hold,
leaving the drug used in more than half of U.S. abortions on the
market while the case is appealed.
Bourla signed an open letter by hundreds industry executives calling
on the Supreme Court to reverse the Texas judge's decision. On
Thursday, he called the FDA "the most iconic regulatory body in the
world," and said citizens can trust that the regulators have done
the work to confirm whether drugs are safe.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/May/12/images/ads/current/library_sda_PROMGRAD_2023.png)
"This is not about abortion pills... It has to do with the ability
of a judge to say whether a medicine is safe and effective," Bourla
said. "That undermines the whole system of trust."
(Reporting by Michael Erman in New York and Bhanvi Stija in
Bengaluru; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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