Economy U.S Government vs. Big Pharma: Drug industry poised for rare political loss on prices

Arkain2K

Arkain2K

Si vis pacem, para bellum
@Steel
Joined
Dec 6, 2010
Messages
33,423
Reaction score
5,684


Thread Index:
---

Trump on drug prices: Pharma companies are ‘getting away with murder’
By Carolyn Y. Johnson | January 11, 2017

​


SAN FRANCISCO -- At his first news conference as president-elect on Wednesday, Donald Trump accused the pharmaceutical industry of “getting away with murder” and said that he would change the way the country bids on drugs to bring prices and spending down.

“Pharma has a lot of lobbies, a lot of lobbyists and a lot of power. And there’s very little bidding on drugs,” Trump said during the event at Trump Tower in New York. “We’re the largest buyer of drugs in the world, and yet we don’t bid properly.”

Federal law forbids the government from negotiating with drug companies to bring down the price of drugs for seniors using Medicare. While Trump did not announce a specific plan to address the issue, he has in the past called for ending the policy -- a proposal that Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly put forward.

The comment dropped a bomb into the middle of the drug industry’s major annual investor conference underway in San Francisco this week, sending pharmaceutical and biotech stocks plunging. The iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index closed down 3 percent Wednesday.

Speaking at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, Mylan Pharmaceuticals chief executive Heather Bresch, who has been under scrutiny for her company’s repeated list price increases on the lifesaving allergy drug EpiPen, said that it would be “premature” to respond to the president-elect’s comments because his specific plans are unknown. But she said the growing public outcry over the cost of drugs has convinced her that the system must change.

“If anybody is walking away from this conference thinking ‘business as usual,’ I think that’s a mistake,” Bresch said. “The pricing model has got to change. It’s not incremental change; I don’t think that’s what this country needs. I think it’s truly rethinking the business model.”

Pharmaceutical company AbbVie announced during the conference that it would temper its drug prices to single-digit increases annually, following similar announcements from Allergan and Novo Nordisk in recent months.

The announcement was unrelated to Trump’s comments, which came as the company was giving a presentation at the conference. Chief executive Richard Gonzalez said he had little insight into what Trump’s criticism would mean for the industry.

“I don’t have a crystal ball as to what changes the president has in mind,” he said.

In a phone interview, Allergan chief executive Brent Saunders pointed out that, in many respects, the expected pro-business agenda under Trump and a Republican Congress — such as corporate tax reform — will benefit the industry. But public anger about drug prices remains a vulnerability, he added.

Saunders has been outspoken that drug companies should show restraint in pricing to avoid a government intervention that could stifle the industry.

“Unfortunately, this is what I was worried about,” Saunders said. “It’s a complete contradiction to say the industry is getting away with murder when the industry is committed to saving and improving lives.”

He said Trump’s comments could have far-reaching implications, scaring investors away from the health care space.

“It goes to show the sentiment, and that causes investors that aren’t health-care specialists pause, in terms of investing in health care,” Saunders said. “It could cause investors in venture capital to have pause in putting money long term into health care, and it could stifle innovation.”

Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) introduced a bill last week that would allow for Medicare negotiation. A 2007 Congressional Budget Office analysis found that the ability to negotiate alone for Medicare’s prescription drug benefit could be fairly toothless, having a “negligible effect on Medicare drug spending” without the ability to set prices or exclude drugs from coverage altogether by creating a formulary.

Trump also criticized drug companies for “leaving left and right,” potentially a reference to “tax inversions,” in which companies merge with foreign companies to relocate their headquarters in countries with more favorable tax rates. And he denounced the companies for manufacturing their products abroad.

Ronny Gal, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein and Co., said that many drug manufacturers have been gradually moving manufacturing overseas, particularly generic manufacturing.

Several chief executives said they would welcome the chance to increase manufacturing in the United States, if the business and tax climate were more favorable -- something that many hope will change under Trump.

Regeneron chief executive Leonard Schleifer said its largest manufacturing capacity is in the U.S., though the company also has a plant in Ireland.

“There’s plenty of manufacturing that does go offshore, but drugs are also sold offshore,” Schleifer said. “The fiscal and tax policies are going to make a difference here.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ting-away-with-murder/?utm_term=.c7af794890e6
 
Last edited:
Good. Something I agree with Trump on. I'd love to see him take a real run at the pharmaceutical companies.
 
“Unfortunately, this is what I was worried about,” Saunders said. “It’s a complete contradiction to say the industry is getting away with murder when the industry is committed to saving and improving lives.”

Made me laugh, but when are people going to learn he speaks figuratively? It's fucking hilarious.
 
In some sense they do get away with murder. They're corporate drug pushers who hook people on very addictive substances that lead to death.
 
KONG-D'SNT-TAP said:
In some sense they do get away with murder. They're corporate drug pushers who hook people on very addictive substances that lead to death.
Click to expand...

SHut up asshole I want them to keep making that shit
 
KONG-D'SNT-TAP said:
Haahhahaha Chris don't you dare take Oxys. Sniff K instead
Click to expand...

Hydrocodone for life son. Id drink lean by the gallon if I could buy it at the indian party store too. Make that shit PURPLE !!!

A wise man once said and I believe this to be true about drugs as well..... " I feel bad for people who dont drink , when they get up thats as good as they are going to feel all day"

I never lied to ya I told ya im white trash haha!!
 
They are, both literally and figuratively.
 
He's just upset that he's not getting a cut of the action.
 
Misfit23 said:
He's just upset that he's not getting a cut of the action.
Click to expand...

God, what a bitter comment.

Any idiot with a few bucks to spare can buy into publicly traded big pharma companies and get dividends paid to them. I.e. "A cut of the action."
 
I love how Indians over use the word "actually". It's got nothing to do with the topic but I thought I'd point it out.
 
Surprised this wasn't talked about earlier. Trump daddy is gonna take on big pharma. This is big news.
 
Obama in 2009 after months & months of unfettered WH access to pharma & insurance:

“As a consequence of our efforts at reform, the pharmaceutical industry has already said they're willing to put $80 billion on the table,”

“Now, why is that? Well, the reason because there's probably even more waste than $80 billion in terms of how the drug plan in Medicare is administered. We might be able to get $100 billion out or more, but the pharmaceutical industry voluntarily said: ‘Here's $80 billion.' You know what that means?

"That means senior citizens who right now have a so-called doughnut hole in their plan, where after spending a certain amount on prescription drugs suddenly they drop off a cliff and they've got to pocket the entire cost, suddenly half of that is filled. That's a hard commitment that we already have.”
 
WandyWiolentFan said:
Surprised this wasn't talked about earlier. Trump daddy is gonna take on big pharma. This is big news.
Click to expand...

The media were too mesmerized by fake news being called out today, but now we're back on schedule with something of substance :)

----

Trump pharma bomb has industry leaders hunkered down in shock
Robert Langreth, Caroline Chen and Jared S. HopkinsBloomberg
Jan 12, 2017

750x422

President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a news cenference at Trump Tower on January 11, 2017 in New York City.​


In a hallway of a San Francisco luxury hotel, investors huddled around a computer screen watching dozens of drug stocks plummet as President-elect Donald Trump lit into pharma companies, declaring that "they're getting away with murder." As for Obamacare, he said, "it'll be repeal and replace."

The mood was shock and disbelief as thousands of health-care investors, bankers and executives gathered at the cramped Westin St. Francis Hotel. Many had paid thousands of dollars to attend the industry's biggest investing get-together of the year, the four-day J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. And they had spent the last days speculating about what policies Trump would push in health care. Then the bomb dropped.

"It's horrible," David MacCallum of Outer Islands Capital, a small hedge fund in New York, said over the phone to his wife as he watched the tickers tilt downward.

On Wednesday, Trump promised to force drug and biotechnology companies to bid for the government's business, and reiterated his demand to do away with Obamacare. "We're the largest buyer of drugs in the world and yet we don't bid properly." He promised the government would "save billions of dollars."

Trump's attack on the industry is just the latest turn in a populist governing philosophy where he's gone after companies that provide high-value goods and services to the government, like defense manufacturers, or major employers, like car manufacturers. Drug stocks jumped after Trump's election, as investors bet he would be friendlier to the industry than his opponent, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

"Well, that party ended fast," John Schroer, sector head of health care at Allianz Global Investors, said as the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index fell 3 percent and the Standard & Poor's 500 Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology & Life Sciences Index fell 1.7 percent.

Trump offered few concrete details on his plans for U.S. health care and, as is his habit, may very well still change his mind. Still, he has begun to outline broad priorities for an industry that's more closely tied to the government than any sector other than defense. The government is a customer for its drugs and services, a regulator of its new products, and an organizer of its markets.

At the same time, Trump has identified a legitimate concern for consumers. U.S. taxpayers and patients essentially subsidize the drug industry. They pay higher prices for drugs than anywhere else in the world. Yet there is also a huge payoff for the system, and not just for companies' bottom lines. Those subsidies have also made the U.S. a cradle of biopharmaceutical innovation.

"As a country, I don't think we're really there yet that we want some of these innovations to not be available to people," said Craig Garthwaite, associate professor of strategy and co-director of the Health Enterprise Management Program at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management.

While Trump has the power to move markets with a single remark, his power to move Congress is less sure. Having the government intervene and negotiate prices against private industry has long been anathema to pro-business Republicans -- including Trump's Cabinet pick on health, Rep. Tom Price -- and the drug industry is almost certain to mount a blistering lobbying and advocacy campaign against such a policy. On Obamacare, a breakaway group of moderate Republican senators have said they're not interested in repealing the law until a replacement policy is written -- which could take months, or years.

The uncertainty Trump has thrown into the sector has ground some strategic plans to a halt. There's a sense among investors that until policies are settled that will affect tax rates, government payments and how health markets are organized, little can happen in the industry.

"We've never seen anything like this," Mario Molina, chief executive officer of Molina Healthcare Inc., said in an interview on Tuesday, before Trump's remarks. The company runs health plans that cover people under Obamacare. "Usually you come to San Francisco for this meeting, and there is lots of chatter about potential deals, and you aren't seeing that," he said. "Everything is on hold until we find out what the government intends to do -- and it seems to change every day."

At a panel with investors, Mylan CEO Heather Bresch faced question after question about Trump's comments.

"If anyone is walking away from the conference, thinking business as usual, that is a mistake," Bresch said. "We've got to re-look at the model" by which the industry prices drugs, she said. Mylan has been one of the companies most criticized on drug pricing, after the drugmaker repeatedly raised the price of EpiPen, its shot for dangerous allergic reactions.

Other executives were still adjusting to their new reality, wishing they could just be left alone by the new president.

"Great," David A. Giljohann, CEO of Exicure, a biotechnology startup, said after being informed of Trump's comments. "Why can't politicians just stay out of this?"

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-trump-pharma-industry-20170112-story.html
 
Last edited:
They are scumbags, impossible to defend at this point.

Pulmicort, a steroid inhaler, generally retails for over $175 in the United States, while pharmacists in Britain buy the identical product for about $20 and dispense it free of charge to asthma patients. Albuterol, one of the oldest asthma medicines, typically costs $50 to $100 per inhaler in the United States, but it was less than $15 a decade ago, before it was repatented.
Click to expand...

Asthma inhalers, for example, are protected by strings of patents — for pumps, delivery systems and production processes — that are hard to skirt to make generic alternatives, even when the medicines they contain are old, as they almost all are.

The repatenting of older drugs like some birth control pills, insulin and colchicine, the primary treatment for gout, has rendered medicines that once cost pennies many times more expensive.

“The increases are stunning, and it’s very injurious to patients,” said Dr. Robert Morrow, a family practitioner in the Bronx. “Colchicine is a drug you could find in Egyptian mummies.”
Click to expand...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/u..._r=2&emc=edit_th_20131013&nl=todaysheadlines&
 
If he spends a couple months deep dicking big pharma, I might actually just lay off for a while. Then a couple months throttling the insurance companies, and boom, single payer. GOAT Trojan Horse POTUS.
 
HomerThompson said:
Good. Something I agree with Trump on. I'd love to see him take a real run at the pharmaceutical companies.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

Fuck them all.

Getting costs regulated for procedures, medications, and other medical equipment will do more for lowering the cost of healthcare than pretty much anything else.
 
Good I hope they look at how long they play around to fuck us out of generic brands of drugs.
 
Rational Poster said:
Agreed.

Fuck them all.

Getting costs regulated for procedures, medications, and other medical equipment will do more for lowering the cost of healthcare than pretty much anything else.
Click to expand...

Yep it needs to be fixed. I'm not getting my hopes up but if it happens I'll be happy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

KOPPE
Economy Biden launches Medicare drug price negotiations
Replies
3
Views
240
ColemanwastheGOAT
ColemanwastheGOAT
LeonardoBjj
Social Drugmakers set to raise US prices on at least 500 drugs in January
Replies
14
Views
571
steveflynn
steveflynn

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,236,868
Messages
55,451,160
Members
174,783
Latest member
notnormal

Share this page

Back
Top