Last month, Congress took a big step towards improving clinical trial diversity by requiring sponsors of most drug and device clinical studies to submit a diversity action plan when they submit key trial documents to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This requirement, enacted under …
Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a memorandum on how it intends to implement the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, passed under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) (see our blog post and slide deck on IRA). The memorandum also introduced …
On September 26, 2022, Biogen Inc. agreed to pay $900 million to the United States and various states to settle a False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit. This lawsuit was brought to the U.S. district court of Massachusetts by former employee and whistleblower Michael Bawduniak in …
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (“IRA”) has now passed both the Senate (on August 7) and the House (on August 12), and is headed to President Biden for signature. We have prepared a slide deck that summarizes Subtitle B of the IRA, entitled “Prescription Drug …
In 2017, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a final rule to significantly decrease the rate the government will reimburse 340B hospitals in 2018 for outpatient prescription drugs from average sales price (“ASP”) plus 6% to ASP minus 22.5%. 82 Fed. Reg. …
Last June, we blogged about a lawsuit brought by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) challenging CMS’s ill-conceived Accumulator Adjustment Rule (“final rule”), which amended the Medicaid Rebate best price regulation. The final rule, which was set to go into effect on January …
Happy New Year! On January 1, 2022, the recently revised version of the PhRMA Code on Interactions with Health Care Professionals went into effect. We summarized the major revisions to the Code in a blog post when it was released in August 2021. Many of the …
On September 30, we blogged about the ongoing dispute and litigation around the use of contract pharmacies under the 340B Drug Discount Program (click here). We reported that HRSA was proceeding with enforcement actions against drug manufacturers that have declined to sell to 340B covered …
Last week, we blogged about a growing list of drug manufacturers that have refused to follow a 2010 guidance issued by the Health Resources and Services Administration (“HRSA”), which permits 340B covered entities to contract with multiple pharmacies to dispense drugs to covered entity patients. …
The 340B drug pricing program has been booming, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration (“HRSA”), the agency under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), which reported that discounted purchases totaled $38 billion in 2020, a 27% increase compared to 2019. …
Despite vigorous criticism of high drug prices from the public and politicians in both parties, drug companies have largely dodged bullets on drug pricing and payment reform. In 2018, Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released its Blueprint to Lower Drug Prices and …
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is proposing to rescind a Trump era rule that would have established a “most favored nation” (MFN) model to base Medicare Part B drug payment on international prices. The Trump Administration rule had a troubled history. The …
On Monday August 2, 2021, the Senate took up for review H.R. 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, following House passage of its version last month. Although the bipartisan bill largely deals with the nation’s transportation infrastructure, Section 90006 delays the so-called “rebate rule,” …
In October 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a Final Rule (which we summarized here) that implemented Section 804 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, 21 U.S.C. § 384, to allow states and …
The past two weeks have seen two noteworthy developments relating to CMS’s Medicaid Drug Rebate Program (MDRP) regulations. 1. PhRMA Sues CMS Challenging MDRP Rule Curbing Patient Assistance In December 2020, CMS published a final rule making several changes to the MDRP regulations. See our post …
