How BIO blocked Trump’s plan to ration drugs in Medicare

January 19, 2021
Today, the last full day of the Trump administration, we take a closer look at the Most Favored Nation drug pricing scheme and what to expect in the coming days in D.C. We also have news from Twist Bioscience that could improve testing for the new COVID-19 variant. …
BIO

Today, the last full day of the Trump administration, we take a closer look at the Most Favored Nation drug pricing scheme and what to expect in the coming days in D.C. We also have news from Twist Bioscience that could improve testing for the new COVID-19 variant. (885 words, 4 minutes, 25 seconds)

Good Day BIO is off tomorrow, Wednesday, January 20, for Inauguration Day. We will resume publication on Thursday, January 21. Stay safe, D.C.

 

How BIO blocked Trump’s plan to ration drugs in Medicare

 
 

“After years of threatening to blow up America’s world-leading biomedical ecosystem, Trump announced an executive order in September that would do just that”—a.k.a. the Most Favored Nation (MFN) drug reimbursement scheme, says Rich Masters, BIO’s EVP of Public Affairs, on the newest episode of the I AM BIO Podcast. He’s joined by two guests who explain what happened—and why the scheme would harm innovation and patients. 

“Most Favored Nation” sounds friendly,but it’s really just foreign price controls—“which study after study after study shows will result in far-fewer new medicines being developed, says Rich. 

The executive order, “hastily issued in September before an election with no opportunity for public comment, would only save insurance companies billions at the expense of cures for patients,” he continues. “Worse yet, this was all occurring as our scientists were working around the clock and risking billions of dollars to find cures and vaccines for a global pandemic.”

(Feeling a little lost? Read our recent Most-Favored Nation explainer.) 

BIO, BIOCOM California, and the California Life Sciences Association (CLSA)took the administration to court—and got an injunction and blocked the order, at least for now.

The MFN scheme was based on a “misconception about how drugs are priced,” explains John Murphy, Deputy General Counsel of BIO, who litigated the case. And biotech investors are not willing to risk billions “if they don’t have some reasonable assurance that the drug can be accessed and paid for once it finally comes to market—if it comes to market.” 

And MFN “relies on the rationing of breakthrough treatments” and “creates conditions akin to drug shortages,” adds Sue Peschin, President and CEO of the Alliance for Aging Research. 

For example: Americans have access to 96% of oncology therapies within two months following approval, she said. Compare that to some of the countries referenced, such as the UK (which has access to 71% in one year), France (68% in 16 months), and New Zealand (29% in two years). 

There’s a lot packed into the 28-minute episode—including what the Biden administration might do on drug pricing, the importance of IP, and how we can fix patients’ out-of-pocket costs without destroying the innovation advantage.

Get the episode at www.bio.org/podcast or wherever you get your podcast fix, including AppleGoogle, or Spotify

Want to know more about MFN and how we got here? Read our recent explainer.

 
 
 
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Twist Bioscience is tackling new COVID-19 variant

 
 

There’s a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 that “spreads more quickly and easily than other variants,” according to the CDC—and experts say it could become the dominant strain in the United States by March. BIO member Twist Bioscience Corporation is taking on the challenge of testing for it.

Twist Bioscience Corporation is a synthetic biology and genomics company that pioneered “a new method of manufacturing synthetic DNA by ‘writing’ DNA on a silicon chip,” says the company

They’ve been using the platform for COVID-19 R&D—including to develop diagnostics and treatments

Twist is now shipping synthetic RNA reference controls for the new variant identified in the UK,allowing diagnostics to verify and validate the presence of the virus.

The new strain is not only more contagious, it's also harder to test for. “[S]ome of the RT-PCR probes used widely in COVID-19 testing no longer detect the S gene that codes for the spike protein,” leading to false negatives, explains Twist.

What they’re saying: “By offering synthetic controls for this specific mutation, our customers are able to update their testing protocols, which will help to potentially avoid false negative results when testing for SARS-CoV-2 infection. These controls, used alone or in conjunction with our SARS-CoV-2 NGS RUO Assay to identify all SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid sequences, are invaluable research tools for monitoring viral evolution and for population-scale surveillance,” said Dr. Emily M. Leproust, CEO and Co-Founder of Twist.

Learn more about Twist Bioscience and Dr. Leproust,the winner of BIO’s 2020 Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology.

 

More Agriculture and Environment News:

Nature: Joe Biden names top geneticist Eric Lander as science adviser
“Lander was a key leader of the Human Genome Project—the race to sequence the human genome, which ended in 2003—and is president and founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He will be the first biologist to run [the Office of Science and Technology Policy].”

 
 
 
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President Trump’s Tuesday: On his last full day in office, “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings.” As many as 100 pardons and commutations are expected today, reports CNN.

President-elect Biden’s Tuesday: Last week, the transition team announced several more members of the White House COVID-19 Response Team. Meanwhile, Biden’s preparing dozens of executive orders—including “rescinding the travel ban on several predominantly Muslim countries; rejoining the Paris climate change accord; extending pandemic-related limits on evictions and student loan payments; issuing a mask mandate for federal property and interstate travel; and ordering agencies to figure out how to reunite children separated from their families after crossing the border,” reports The New York Times. But don’t plan a trip to Europe just yet.

What’s Happening on Capitol Hill: Senate committees will hear from several of Biden’s Cabinet nominees today, including Transportation nominee Pete Buttigieg and Treasury nominee Janet Yellen, who Bloomberg says is expected to discuss Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan.

 
 
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