Cost Curve Fight Club Kicks Off Now ... Your Input Is Needed

Happy Boxing Day. 

I know that “Boxing Day” has nothing to do with fighting, but it still seems like an apt day to launch Cost Curve Fight Club, an end-of-year opportunity for you to weigh in on the most important stories of the year in pharma pricing. 

I previewed the matchups on Friday, but I’ve listed them below. If you’re ready to let your voice be heard, CLICK HERE TO GO FILL OUT YOUR BALLOT. 

I’ll be back tomorrow with the Elite Eight. 

The Price Control Regional: 

(1) The selection of the first 10 medicines for Medicare price controls
(4) The patient-focused listening sessions
(3) The explosion of state prescription drug affordability boards
(2) Lawsuits seeking to toss the IRA

The Regulatory Regional 

(1) Guidelines around using march-in rights around drug prices
(4) The growth of the 340B program to record size
(3) The FTC's intervention in the Sanofi-Maze deal
(2) The FTC's intervention in the Amgen-Horizon deal

The Launch Regional 

(1) Leqembi's launch in Alzheimer's, along with its four-page pricing explanation
(4) Brenzavvy's entry into the type 2 diabetes market as a cash-pay-only launch brand
(3) Sickle cell pricing: $2.2 million for Casgevy, $3.1 for Lyfgenia
(2) Zepbound hitting the market at a discount to Wegovy

The PBM Regional

(1) House passes the Lower Price, More Transparency Act
(4) Senate Finance Committee recommends reform
(3) Mark Cuban calls the PBM model "absolutely freaking insane"
(2) Blue Shield of California drops its PBM for a home-grown solution

It’s still a holiday week, but things are happening. Here’s a quick overview, with minimal commentary: 

• The Congressional Budget Office sent a letter to a couple of members of Congress defending/explaining how they’re assessing the impact of the IRA, including a conclusion that venture flows into pharma don’t seem to have been impacted.

• I liked this SmithRx blog post on how to talk about how broken the health care system is with your family. 

• STAT is now doing letters to the editor, which I think will foster great dialogue. The inaugural letters push back on a dumb First Opinion on patient advocacy that I didn’t highlight last week (even though I had feelings, it was out of my lane). But I’m happy to see the response. 

• Former Trump official Joe Grogan has a piece out in The Hill arguing that the IRA will come at a cost to patients, quite literally, as insurers shift IRA-related costs to seniors. This is likely to become a core anti-IRA talking point throughout 2024. 

• The folks at Harvard/PORTAL have a new publication in the Journal of Managed Care and Specialty Pharmacy that assesses what kind of drug-price pilots from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation have worked (and, therefore, are worth emulating). It was funded by Arnold Ventures. 

• JMCP also published an analysis by a Johns Hopkins team of the demographics of the Medicare beneficiaries likely to be impacted by various IRA provisions. It was also funded by Arnold Ventures.