Brill discusses the opioid tax on big pharma in an interview for KSRO stating, “it’s going to result in higher prices for those opioids. But the out-of-pockets costs for the person filling the prescription is likely to remain the same.”
DetailsWith the government reopened (at least for now), Speaker Nancy Pelosi is poised to begin advancing her party’s policy agenda. High on the list will be the loosely-defined Green New Deal, a federal spending program that will cost $2 trillion, $5.7 trillion, or more, and move the electric power sector to complete reliance on renewable energy sources.
DetailsIn a new paper sponsored by Women In Government, MGA examines why a proposed tax on prescription opioids would be ineffective and details the unintended consequences of this policy.
Details““We find that the law will reduce charitable giving by 4% to $17.2 billion in 2018 according to a static model and $16.3 billion assuming a modest boost to growth,” Brill writes in the paper.”
Details“I think we are going to see in 2019 that it is a little softer than 2018. We just came off of a 3.5% Real GDP quarter. I think the consensus that a little bit of a slowdown next year is correct. That said what is keeping the economy going is in part a fiscal boost, a little bit on the spending side, and on the tax policy side, both putting cash in people’s pockets.”
Details“We’ve seen three months of strong economic growth in the labor market and we are adding jobs. I’d also just add we are two weeks away of getting the state level numbers and I think that will be informative both with respect to the weather effects and quite frankly some of the political aspects. We will have a better insight as to where these jobs are being created.”
DetailsTomorrow, the American public will get a fresh glimpse at the state of the US labor market. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) release of the September employment report, which will be the next-to-last before the upcoming election, will provide voters new insight on job growth and unemployment rates.
DetailsAs Brill sees it, there are 4 main categories of barriers to biosimilar uptake: reference product manufacturers, biosimilar manufacturers, policy, and education.
DetailsIn a new paper, MGA discusses why the biosimilars market in the United States is not more developed and what steps can be taken to boost competition for biologic drugs. The paper identifies barriers to biosimilars by four categories, related to reference product manufacturers, biosimilar manufacturers, policy, and stakeholder education and awareness. Among the strategies to overcoming barriers are more physician and patient education, competitive biosimilar pricing, action by employer-sponsored health plans and private payors to encourage biosimilar utilization, and continued FDA efforts to support the budding market.
DetailsA new study from MGA examines the practice by brand drug manufacturers of using Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) and other forms of restricted access to keep generic manufacturers from obtaining samples needed to develop generic drugs. MGA estimates that this misuse blocks $13.4 billion in generic savings annually, an estimate that has grown nearly 250 percent since MGA’s 2014 analysis of this issue.
Details
