Big Pharma’s $109M War Chest Secured Win In Battle Over High Drug Prices
Voters rejected an initiative to bar the state from spending more on a prescription drug than the lowest price paid by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Washington Post:
Drug Companies Just Scored A Big Election Victory
California voters rejected a closely watched ballot initiative aimed at capping how much most state-funded health insurance programs pay for prescription drugs, a possible bellwether of the lack of political appetite for more widespread policies to tackle high drug prices. State agencies would have been barred from paying more than the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs does for prescription drugs. VA gets at least a 24 percent discount off the average manufacturer's price of a drug and is insulated against price hikes larger than inflation. (Johnson, 11/9)
The Sacramento Bee:
Drug Companies Win Campaign Over Prop. 61 Price Cap
Pharmaceutical companies have won California’s most expensive ballot measure battle, beating back Proposition 61’s effort to cap drug prices. Proposition 61 was trailing 54 percent to 46 percent on Wednesday, and advocates acknowledged they had lost. (Cadelago, 11/9)
The Wall Street Journal:
Pharma Stocks Benefit From U.S. Election Result, But Relief May Be Fleeting
Shares of drugmakers rallied Wednesday on expectations that Mr. Trump’s election and Republican control of Congress would lessen the chances of government restrictions on drug prices—a prospect that seemed on the rise in response to a public backlash against escalating prescription costs over the past few years. Mr. Trump did speak out against high drug prices at times during his campaign—including supporting allowing the Medicare agency to directly negotiate lower drug prices with manufacturers—but he didn’t propose as many specific measures against prices as Mrs. Clinton did. (Loftus and Roland, 11/9)