Another blow to the legacy of Obama.
The pharmaceutical industry’s day of reckoning may have finally arrived.
President Trump and his administration are determined to move forward on a sweeping initiative to address the rising cost of prescription treatments and, for once, the drug lobby may be unable to block the effort. A blueprint revealed earlier this month contained a number of proposals — some more vague than others — that included allowing further private negotiation in the Medicare program and ending the drug rebate program.
Instead of a direct attack on the plan, Big Pharma hopes to craft policies that would quiet critics while avoiding potentially costly measures drugmakers have long opposed. It’s planning to work behind the scenes with the White House, the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Health and Human Services to find common ground on the final regulatory proposals.
The head of the industry’s main lobbying group alluded to the strategy earlier this year.
“The real question is what’s the right kind of change?” Stephen Ubl, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said at an event in May. “There are proposals in the president’s suite of 50 ideas that have great potential. Everyone needs to come to the table with constructive ideas on how to evolve those proposals.”
It’s a departure from tactics employed in the past decade when the pharmaceutical lobby effectively killed most unfavorable policies through expensive ad campaigns across key congressional markets and grassroots advocacy efforts with industry-backed patient groups.
HT: AlyOop