phrma

On Monday, The New York Times ran a damning story detailing how the nation’s drug makers are hiking their prices ahead of the reform laws winding their way through Congress. The very next day, some powerful House Democrats called for a closer look, asking the Government Accountability Office to examine the drug industry to verify [...]

It came as little surprise when Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) yesterday moved  to kill efforts to lower seniors’ drug costs by squeezing Big Pharma. After all, Baucus earlier in the year had agreed to a controversial deal with the drug lobby, under which the drug companies vowed to support health reform legislation [...]

In a major victory for the pharmaceutical industry, the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday shot down legislation to provide seniors full coverage through the controversial coverage gap in Medicare’s prescription drug benefit.

In the middle of June, the White House forged a deal with the nation’s largest drug makers. As part of the bargain — under which the pharmaceutical companies offered $80 billion over 10 years in reduced drug costs to seniors and the government — the administration vowed to withhold support for a proposal allowing state [...]

That’s what Ryan Grim at The Huffington Post is reporting this morning, having unearthed what purports to be a memo outlining a secret deal cut between the White House and the pharmaceutical lobby over health reform legislation.
It says the White House agreed to oppose any congressional efforts to use the government’s leverage to bargain for [...]

Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) just shot out a statement reacting to the recent deal cut between the White House and the pharmaceutical industry to trim prescription drug costs for millions of Medicare patients. Here’s a hint: They’re not terribly impressed.
“Even with PhRMA’s offer to help seniors,” says Dorgan, “American consumers will [...]

President Obama today made official an $80 billion deal with the pharmaceutical industry to cut prescription drug costs for the nation’s seniors.
As it is, Medicare patients are forced to pay the full cost for their prescription drugs when annual expenses fall between $2,700 and $6,154. Under the new agreement, drug companies would pick of 50 [...]