Colorado Considering Price Caps on Enbrel, Genvoya, Cosentyx, Stelara and Trikafta

It’s the dog days, so it’s a quick Curve today. Later in the week, I’ll get back to my noodling about the implications of the great Shkreli story, so stay tuned.

There was big news out of Colorado on Friday that might have gone unnoticed if a local TV station hadn’t picked it up: the first state-level attempt at price controls now has specific drugs in the crosshairs.

Colorado’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board said it would consider price caps on Enbrel, Genvoya, Cosentyx, Stelara and Trikafta.

The board now digs in to see if they want to set an “upper payment limit.” There’s no requirement that they do so, and the advocacy community is already sounding the alarm (as detailed in the KDVR story). BIO was also on the record this morning about the “serious concerns with the quality of the selection process and the flawed foundation it has set for this review.”

I’m already running late, so here are the quicker-than-usual-quick-turns:

• There is a growing sense that the IRA process really short-changes the patient voice, and that CMS’ effort to shore up their patient-centricity is more flash than substance. This Real Clear op-ed by advocacy leaders zeros in on that issue.

• The New York Times ran a worthwhile guest essay on the challenge of personalized medicine: to make serving small groups of patients economically viable, prices have gotten so high as to raise concerns about access, and especially equitable access.

• Former NPC and AAM chief Dan Leonard has been writing up a storm lately. His newest missive looks at the way that the IRA adds a dangerous level of uncertainty to the development of biosimilars.

• We’ve talked about this a lot over here, but Forbes ran some math of their own about IRA negotiations in light of already-low net prices.

• It’s clear that, over time, contract pharmacies in the 340B program are less and less tied to a clear mission to support low-income Americans in their local communities, and this JAMA Health Forum piece (funded by Arnold Ventures!) reinforces that reality.

• Sage won approval for its postpartum depression drug (though not the major depressive disorder indication), but there’s no price yet.

• I don’t know if this is particularly surprising, but Reuters called a bunch of name-brand hospital systems to see if they’ll carry Leqembi for Alzheimer’s. Turns out Mayo Clinic, Northwestern Memorial, Cedars-Sinai, Cleveland Clinic and Utah’s Intermountain health system all have plans to do so. How (and how often) the medicine gets prescribed is still a question mark.

• Politico has a piece of low-key snark, noting that pharma is increasingly warning that if the EU implements onerous new regulations on pharma, the industry will simply pivot to the United States … where onerous new regulations on pharma are also a thing.