It is unclear whether congressional Democrats will meet their self-appointed deadline to pass and send to President Biden this week a $3.5 trillion economic and social welfare bill including major drug pricing reforms.
340B covered entities worry that language that would effectively eliminate 340B savings on drugs dispensed to Medicaid managed care enrollees will be included in the bill’s drug pricing section.
The final drug pricing language will probably come from the Senate Finance Committee. News organization Politico reported early this morning that “top congressional Democrats are acknowledging for the first time that they’ll have to scale back their drug pricing plans to win centrist votes for their giant social spending package.”
The centerpiece of those plans has been giving Medicare authority to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers. “Lawmakers, aides and lobbyists close to the process said the leaders are now discussing making fewer drugs subject to government negotiation and shifting the benchmark for such talks away from prices paid in other developed nations,” Politico reported.
