Administration Opens Door To Drug Importation
The Trump administration is now open to using prescription drugs imported from overseas — ones that have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration — to combat high drug prices in limited circumstances. The FDA said it plans to create a working group to examine how to safely import drugs in a specific situation: when there's a sharp price increase for an off-patent drug produced by a single manufacturer. Click here for the government's announcement. Over the past couple of weeks, Pfizer, Novartis, and Merck announced that they would either maintain current prices or actually cut some costs. And now, HHS' Inspector General is proposing a rule to remove safe safe harbor protections for drug rebates paid to insurers and pharmacy benefit managers. For more on what the drug companies are doing, click here. To see the safe harbor regulation notice, click here.
- On Wednesday, the Senate HELP Committee will mark up a bill (S 2554) that would prohibit any insurer offering plans on the exchanges from blocking pharmacists from telling patients if a prescription drug would be more affordable if they paid with cash rather than through their insurance, click here.