U.S. Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), whom 340B covered entities have considered both a friend and foe, has decided to run for governor of Indiana in 2024 rather than seek reelection to the Senate.
A senator since 2019, Braun serves on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee which has jurisdiction over the 340B program. Drug manufacturer Eli Lilly is one of Indiana’s main employers. The state’s health systems are another.
In fall 2020, Braun introduced legislation to require 340B disproportionate share, children’s, and free-standing cancer hospitals to report data from their main and child sites on patient insurance status, charity care costs, and aggregate acquisition costs and reimbursements for 340B drugs. The hospitals also would have had to report “the name of all third-party vendors or other similar entities that the covered entity contracts with” for 340B program services. The bill never gained momentum.
A few months later, Braun offered then tabled a surprise amendment to a budget bill related to “improving transparency” in the 340B program “through data reporting.”
More recently, Braun and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) asked the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Inspector General “to take immediate action to stop” drug manufacturers—including Lilly—that the senator say illegally deny 340B pricing to covered entities that use multiple contract pharmacies.
