What they are saying: AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot told reporters last month that the initial proposal from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) was “relatively encouraging,” while Pfizer Chief Financial Officer David Denton said The company’s chief financial officer (CFO) told investors that the impact of the negotiations would be “modest.”
Far from being put off by the idea of negotiating drug prices, advocates see these comments as: reassuring lip service To shareholders who are potentially concerned.
“We expected them to say something like this,” said Merris Basie, executive director of the advocacy group Affordable Medicines for Patients. He pointed out that there is room to significantly reduce costs. It’s still making profits.
recent comments contrast Lawyers for the drug companies have complained in court that the negotiations have already begun to seriously harm the companies, an argument that several federal judges have questioned.
“Their lawyers need to follow certain ethical guidelines to talk about the harm, while at the same time comforting the investors on the other side, saying, ‘Don’t run away from this business and this opportunity.’ It’s not going to be as bad as you think.” ,” Zachary Barron, director of the O’Neill Institute’s Health Policy and Law Initiative, told The Hill.
Although some pharmaceutical companies may not have expected it, extreme price dropat least when speaking to investors, advocates emphasize that the impact on patients remains enormous.
“For one person, a few hundred dollars makes a huge difference,” Basie said. “Again, this is a story about ordinary people.”
