Unpacking Harris’ drug spending cap plan

Presented by Express Scripts by Evernorth: Delivered every Tuesday and Friday by 12 p.m., Prescription Pulse examines the latest pharmaceutical news and policy.
Sep 24, 2024 View in browser
 
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By David Lim and Lauren Gardner

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Express Scripts by Evernorth
Driving The Day

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a podium

Vice President Kamala Harris' proposal to cap private insurance has sparked debate among health care experts and lawmakers. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP

HARRIS WANTS TO LIMIT DRUG COSTS — A proposal to cap out-of-pocket drug costs for Americans with private insurance would shift consumer spending from pharmaceuticals to insurance premiums — but some Democrats say Vice President Kamala Harris’ plan would help those who most need financial assistance paying for expensive medicines.

“This is part of why we do insurance,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said. “It’s not about average costs. It’s about people who are out at the tail end of the numbers and therefore need real help when they’re being gouged by these giant pharmaceutical companies.”

If the policy to expand Medicare’s $2,000 annual cap managed to weave through Congress, it is unclear how many people would benefit — and many private plans already feature an out-of-pocket maximum that applies to all health care costs.

“I suspect that if you were to cap spending on prescription drugs, that might mean higher out-of-pocket spending in other types of services,” said Cynthia Cox, a vice president at health care nonprofit KFF. “We have seen employers … are paying a larger share of prescription drug costs over time whereas they are paying a smaller share of hospital costs over time.”

In 2018, under 1 percent of people with a large-employer health plan spent more than $2,000 out-of-pocket on drugs. Another 2.6 percent had out-of-pocket costs exceeding $1,000, according to an analysis by KFF. The analysis relied on drug claims of nearly 18 million people who were in large-employer plans in 2018.

Republicans — who supported capping out-of-pocket costs in Medicare — have largely remained silent on the push by Harris to expand it to the private market. But some, such as Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, worry it might raise overall health care costs. Other conservatives say it could destabilize health insurance markets.

“It would cause havoc,” said Joe Grogan, former director of the Domestic Policy Council under former President Donald Trump. “The commercial market is already eroding, and this could accelerate that erosion.”

The Harris campaign did not comment on the impact of the out-of-pocket cap on the insurance market.

One top Democrat on Capitol Hill has signaled he wants to examine the proposal.

“She’s obviously trying to help folks who are getting clobbered with these huge health care costs,” said Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). “I’m going to look at it seriously.”

IT’S TUESDAY. WELCOME BACK TO PRESCRIPTION PULSE. Congress is back for a final week in Washington before its general election hiatus.

Reach out with tips to David Lim (dlim@politico.com or @davidalim) and Lauren Gardner (lgardner@politico.com or @Gardner_LM).

 

A message from Express Scripts by Evernorth:

Nearly two-thirds of Express Scripts by Evernorth customers spend less than $100 a year out-of-pocket for all their medications. Yes, despite the median annual price of new drugs to market soaring to an average of $300K in 2023. Yes, despite the median of all drug prices going up by 5% last year. That's not a middleman. That's an advocate. Express Scripts is fighting to make medications more affordable. Learn more here.

 
In Congress

CEO of Danish Novo Nordisk Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen holding a microphone

Novo Nordisk's CEO Lars Jørgensen will testify before the Senate HELP Committee today about high prices for Ozempic and Wegovy. | Mohammed Badra/AP

NOVO TO DEFEND GLP-1 PRICING — Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Jørgensen will testify before the Senate HELP Committee this morning about — in Chair Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) words — “the outrageously high prices Novo Nordisk is charging Americans struggling with diabetes and obesity for Ozempic and Wegovy.”

The hearing gives Senate Democrats one last opportunity before the November election to grill a major pharma player about the high domestic cost of prescription drugs compared to other wealthy nations. Vice President Kamala Harris has vowed to broaden the number of drugs eligible for Medicare price negotiations — and to expand the program to private insurers — if she’s elected in November, though both moves would require congressional action.

Past is prologue: Sanders has used hearings with pharma execs this Congress to extract commitments to lower prices for products like asthma inhalers and insulin. However, it’s worth noting that other factors— like Medicaid rebate changes and FTC pressure — played into those decisions.

Last week, Sanders hosted a panel on Capitol Hill about the cost of Novo’s GLP-1 drugs in the U.S., disclosing that CEOs of unnamed generic drugmakers told him they could manufacture and sell copycat versions of Novo's diabetes drug Ozempic for less than $100 a month and still profit.

“As important and groundbreaking as these drugs may be, they will not do any good for the millions of people who cannot afford them,” he said.

Advocacy groups like Public Citizen — and several congressional Democrats — have urged the Biden administration to assert executive authority to permit generic production of the drugs, though such a move would surely lead to litigation over patent exclusivity and intellectual property rights.

Shot of realism: There’s little reason to think Novo would voluntarily embrace early generic competition or lower its prices. The company’s Ozempic patents are expected to prevent generic entry until the early 2030s, and the company has pointed to the role insurers and pharmacy benefit managers — the middlemen that negotiate deals between drugmakers and insurers — play in setting prices.

“The complexities of the system unfortunately reduce access and affordability for many Americans,” Jørgensen said in his written statement. “We are eager to work with this Committee to address these systemic issues so that everyone who can benefit from our medicines is able to get them.”

FILLING IN THE GAPS — Telehealth provider Noom, which offers both branded and off-brand compounded weight-loss medicines, unveiled a petition to policymakers today, calling for compounding pharmacies to get a “lengthy grace period” to continue filling prescriptions once the current shortage of injectable GLP-1 shortage is resolved.

Under existing law, compounders can make “essentially a copy” of a drug in shortage. But once it’s back in supply, outsourcing facilities have 60 days to ramp down production, and smaller compounding pharmacies must stop making them immediately unless they’re filling customized prescriptions.

“We think that these [compounded] meds are being offered … at a pricing that is supported by the market and is rational, and that if we're going to remove that affordable supply from the market, policymakers should really question the pharmaceutical companies as to how they’re going to meet the demand of the patients who are losing access to their obesity and diabetes medications,” Noom CEO Geoff Cook told Prescription Pulse.

 

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Tobacco

FDA SLAPS MORE FINES ON RETAILERS — Several sellers of unauthorized e-cigarettes failed to address violations documented in FDA warning letters — and the agency said Monday it is now seeking civil money penalties of more than $20,000 against the 11 retailers.

AROUND THE AGENCIES

HHS SICKLE CELL SUMMIT — HHS is holding an all-day event on sickle cell disease today at department headquarters, highlighting advances in treatments and quality-of-life concerns from patients.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra; Nicole Verdun, the super office director for the FDA's Office of Therapeutic Products at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research; and Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) are scheduled to speak alongside providers, people with sickle cell disease and advocates.

The FDA approved two gene therapies for the disease at the end of 2023, but treatment is expensive and intensive — their list prices exceed $2 million, and patients must undergo chemotherapy to prepare for the infusion.

Document Drawer

The FDA and the National Institutes of Health will hold a public meeting on Oct. 21 to discuss the need for novel smoking-cessation products to help people of all ages.

Dr. Michelle Tarver, acting director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, and other FDA staff had an “introductory meeting” on Aug. 28 with House Energy and Commerce Committee staffers Caitlin Wilson, Grace Graham and Jolie Brochin, and HHS’ Brian Kehoe, according to a newly posted FDA meeting calendar. The meeting demonstrates the new top medical device leader is working to maintain relationships her predecessor — Dr. Jeff Shuren — developed on Capitol Hill.

WHAT WE'RE READING

Regulators are weighing whether to allow drug companies to infect people with whooping cough to test new vaccines against the illness, CNN’s Brenda Goodman and Deidre McPhillips report.

Former President Donald Trump met with the leader of the Vapor Technology Association on Friday and shortly after pledged to support the vaping industry on Truth Social, The Washington Post’s Isaac Stanley-Becker and Dan Diamond report.

A CMS Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation model proposed in 2023 to allow Part D plans to voluntarily cap out-of-pocket costs for 150 high-value generic drugs at $2 a month would lower costs for about 4 in 10 beneficiaries, Drs. Christopher Cai, Aaron Kesselheim and Benjamin Rome of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School write in JAMA Internal Medicine. Median annual savings were estimated at $11.

 

A message from Express Scripts by Evernorth:

Want to know something unhealthy? The median annual price of a new drug reached $300K in 2023. Yes, $300,000. Yet millions of Americans pay less than $100 a year out-of-pocket for all their medications combined. How? Express Scripts by Evernorth. Express Scripts by Evernorth is the last line of defense for millions of Americans against rising health costs – fighting every day to make their medications more affordable and accessible. And they’re not stopping anytime soon. That’s not a middleman. That’s an advocate. See how Express Scripts is fighting to make medication more affordable for millions. Learn more here.

 
 

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