It seems to me that all drugs should be included in the Medicare price negotiations.
From Reuters:
Injectable versions of some widely-used cancer drugs including Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ.N) blockbuster multiple myeloma treatment Darzalex are likely to be excluded from new U.S. government price negotiations for years, drugmakers told Reuters, protecting billions in revenue.
Whether the government agrees that adding an ingredient enabling infused drugs to be given by injection will allow them to be considered new medicines and significantly delay eligibility for price negotiations is being closely watched by Wall Street and the drugmakers.
J&J, Merck & Co (MRK.N), which is testing an injectable version of its top-selling immunotherapy Keytruda, and Halozyme Therapeutics (HALO.O), which licenses the critical new ingredient, hyaluronidase, for subcutaneous drugs, all told Reuters they believe the reformulation qualifies the medicines to be treated like new drugs.
Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY.N) and Roche (ROG.S), which are developing versions for under the skin injection of cancer immunotherapies Opdivo and Tecentriq, respectively, said it was too soon to say. (more…)
