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HHS releases initial guidance for Medicare Prescription Drug Inflation Rebate Program

The CMS on Thursday released the initial guidance on how it will calculate drug inflation rebates in Medicare Part B and Part D as required under the Inflation Reduction Act. Drug companies will pay rebates to the Medicare Trust Fund when their prescription drug prices increase faster than the rate of inflation for certain drugs. The guidance documents, for the implementation of the new Medicare Prescription Drug Inflation Rebate Program, seek comment on the steps CMS has outlined for drugs covered under Part B and Part D. The guidance documents are open for public comment until March 11. Starting April 1, consumer out-of-pocket costs will be based on the inflation adjusted drug price.

Senate Judiciary Committee sends five pharma-related bills to floor

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday advanced five bills via voice vote that will prohibit and slow some of the games pharmaceutical companies often play to extend their monopolies before generic competition comes to market. One of the five bills aims to preserve generic drug and biosimilar access by prohibiting brand drugmakers from paying generic drug companies to delay the market entry of competition. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said at the hearing that Congress has to do more to ensure pharmaceuticals are affordable, and "we can work together to deal with drug pricing and availability." All of the bills included some amount of bipartisan support, and deal with FDA-US PTO interagency work, pharmacy benefit manager transparency, look to eliminate citizen petition abuses, and set a definition for product hopping that can be considered anticompetitive.

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