Good morning, Jason Mast here filling in for Ed. Today, I’m drinking a cup of tepid corporate chain coffee, black with a touch of hazelnut, but I’m thinking about a cup I drank recently at Qawah House, a little Yemeni cafe in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood. Always a party inside. Will brew you the best cup you’ve had in ages. Warming, rich, aromatic. Just like this news. …
Monica Bertagnolli, President Biden’s nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health, will get a hearing next month, perhaps thanks to a drug-pricing deal, STAT says. Sen. Bernie Sanders, (I-Vt.) had refused to hold a hearing until the administration promised more drug-pricing reform. It appears that a deal the Department of Health and Human Services announced Friday with Regeneron to fund new Covid antibodies may have met his ask. Regeneron promised to charge no more in the U.S. for any resulting drug than it does elsewhere in the world.
A top Democrat signed onto a bill that would ban pharmacy benefit managers from spread pricing, STAT noticed. The endorsement, from U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey will help advance a bill that stops PBMs from charging Medicaid more than they pay pharmacies for drugs. It would also equalize payments for drug administration between hospital outpatient departments and physicians’ offices. Some Democrats have opposed the measure, seeking more transparency provisions.