PhRMA’s fighting words for Biden

The ideas and innovators shaping health care

May 26, 2023 View in browser   By Shawn Zeller, Ben Leonard, Erin Schumaker and Carmen Paun Programming note: We’ll be off this Monday for Memorial Day but will be back in your inboxes on Tuesday. POLICY PUZZLE Ubl laid into President Biden during an interview with POLITICO. | AP Photo “President Biden … promised a war on cancer, but his administration, in our view, has launched a war on the cure instead.” — Stephen J. Ubl, president and chief executive officer of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America The lobby for brand-name drugmakers, PhRMA, is still smarting over Congress and President Joe Biden’s decision last year to require Medicare to negotiate the prices of a limited number of drugs. It marks the first time the government will use its power as a major consumer of medicines to try to drive down costs through direct negotiation. Stephen Ubl, PhRMA’s CEO, told POLITICO that his members anticipate they’ll have to halt development of scores of drugs. That’s because they expect drug price negotiations will significantly reduce the number of years during which they can set prices unfettered. PhRMA’s critics believe that the big drugmakers overstate their importance in driving innovation and will still have plenty of incentive to develop useful therapies. Body blow: But Ubl insisted that Biden’s cancer moonshot – his plan to reduce the cancer death rate by half over the next 25 years – will suffer because drugmakers will have difficulty making money from “small-molecule” medicines that target cancer cells. “We just did a survey of our membership: 63 percent of our members said that they’re going to move away from small molecules,” Ubl said. Plan of attack: So now that Republicans control the House, is PhRMA asking representatives to reopen the drug pricing provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act? No, Ubl said, because Biden and the Democratic majority in the Senate are unwilling to do so. Instead, drugmakers will work on developing evidence to change lawmakers’ minds, he said, which he expects will be easier after the price negotiations take effect. Once the law “gets implemented and patient organizations and others wake up to these implications, you very quickly move out of the theoretical discussion into some very specific discussions,” he said. 2024 nears: PhRMA also plans to use its financial might to help allies win next year’s election. Ubl said his group will “continue to be heavily engaged and will be supporting members that support innovation, support the industry.” Biden’s retort: The White House didn't respond to a request for a rebuttal, but the president doesn’t seem worried. In fact, he’s proposed expanding Medicare drug price negotiations and blasted the drugmakers in March for making “exorbitant profits at the expense of the American people.”   DON’T MISS POLITICO’S HEALTH CARE SUMMIT: The Covid-19 pandemic helped spur innovation in health care, from the wide adoption of telemedicine, health apps and online pharmacies to mRNA vaccines. But what will the next health care innovations look like? Join POLITICO on Wednesday June 7 for our Health Care Summit to explore how tech and innovation are transforming care and the challenges ahead for access and delivery in the United States. REGISTER NOW.     WELCOME TO FUTURE PULSE Four Mile Run, Arlington, Va. | Ben Leonard This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. It took AI less than two hours to come up with a list of experimental antibiotics that could kill a deadly bacteria. But testing on people is still needed, and the first antibiotics created with AI are unlikely to be available for patients till 2030, the BBC reports. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Ben Leonard at bleonard@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com, Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp. Today on our Pulse Check podcast, host Alice Miranda Ollstein talks with Carmen about why some Democrats say the HALT Fentanyl Act that the House passed yesterday is a distraction, and why more than a third of their caucus still voted for it. Listen to today’s Pulse Check podcast PANDEMIC Covid has taken an uneven toll. | AP Life expectancy dropped precipitously during the pandemic, and racial disparities grew, according to a new analysis from KFF, the health research and news organization. The grim subtraction: — American Indian and Alaska Native people saw their life expectancies fall 6.6 years between 2019 and 2021 from about 72 years to 65 years. — Hispanic people saw their expected lifespans drop by 4.2 years. — Black people lost 4 years. — White people lost 2.4 years. — Asian people lost 2.1 years. Covid-19 was a factor in driving those disparities, but not the only one, KFF said. The researchers argued the disparities in life expectancy are due to: — More barriers to health care for people of color, including higher rates of uninsurance — Social and economic disparities, as well as social and economic factors shaping behavior — Racism and discrimination Black, Hispanic and American Indian and Alaska Native communities experienced higher death rates for most of the pandemic. Covid was the top cause of death for Hispanic and American Indian and Alaska Native people, trailed by heart disease and cancer. Rates of death tied to alcohol nearly doubled for American Indian and Alaska Native people between 2019 and 2021. But for white, Black and Asian people, heart disease and cancer were more deadly than Covid.   GET READY FOR GLOBAL TECH DAY: Join POLITICO Live as we launch our first Global Tech Day alongside London Tech Week on Thursday, June 15. Register now for continuing updates and to be a part of this momentous and program-packed day! From the blockchain, to AI, and autonomous vehicles, technology is changing how power is exercised around the world, so who will write the rules? REGISTER HERE.     INNOVATORS Musk says his firm will make blind people see and paralyzed people walk. | Pool photo by Ludovic Marin The FDA has green-lit Neuralink’s first in-human clinical study for its brain implant technology, the Elon Musk-owned company tweeted on Thursday. “This … represents an important first step that will one day allow our technology to help many people,” the company said in the tweet. The technology aims to cure blindness and paralysis by enhancing the brain. The device is about the size of a quarter and when placed under the skin translates brain signals into actions. Why it matters: If it works, it could help people with spinal cord injuries or Lou Gehrig’s disease. “We’re confident that it is possible to restore full body functionality to someone who has a severed spinal cord,” Musk said in December, when he announced the company was seeking the FDA’s blessing. Reality check: As of now, the company has shown that monkeys with the chips can use a video game with their minds. Musk has promoted the technology since 2019, but there’s not much evidence yet about how well it works. The FDA said that it “acknowledges and understands” that Neuralink announced its investigational device exemption was approved by the agency.   Follow us on Twitter Ben Leonard @_BenLeonard_ Ruth Reader @RuthReader Carmen Paun @carmenpaun Erin Schumaker @erinlschumaker   Follow us

To change your alert settings, please log in at https://www.politico.com/_login?base=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com/settings This email was sent to rouf@idiot.cloudns.cc by: POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA Please click here and follow the steps to unsubscribe.