Will Today Be the AZ IRA Lawsuit Decision Day?

Look, there’s not much going on today, so I won’t waste your time with a lot of fluff. 

• In the absence of actual news, I’m paying close attention to potential news, namely the prospect that a decision could come in the AstraZeneca IRA case today. The company has asked for a decision by March 1, but I don’t think it’s a slam dunk that we’ll get news today -- the judge has seemed to suggest that he doesn’t see the urgency. Still: it’s worth keeping an eye on the docket. 

• Speaking on IRA suits, the judge in the Boehringer Ingelheim case has changed. It’s now Trump appointee Kari A. Dooley, replacing the Clinton appointee originally on the case. I’ve still yet to see any meaningful analyses of any of the judges hearing the IRA case, so I have no idea if that matters. 

• Yesterday was Rare Disease Day, and the most newsworthy recognition of the day was in the House, where a subcommittee hearing tackled a number of bills that would encourage rare disease research. Endpoints has a good summary. Geeks may want to read the testimony from Harvard’s Aaron Kesselheim, who argued against IRA fixes, and USC’s Alice Chen, who noted that “blunt price controls are not the answer” and that discouraging innovation today would harm patients tomorrow. 

• The AIDS Institute has a state-by-state analysis of the use of copay accumulators in Affordable Care Act marketplace plans. Nineteen states and DC go “A”s, either because accumulators are banner or because no plans include an accumulator option. In eleven states, every plan option has an accumulator, earning those states an “F.” (Hat tip to Jennifer Snow.)