Pharmaceutical companies are already plotting ways to circumvent new
regulations that would allow for
Medicare to negotiate the prices of a very limited number of drugs.
Now the policy was the outcome of Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, or the end
result of the severely watered down version of his build back better agenda.
You know, that agenda that the President couldn't be bothered to fight for.
But nonetheless, the original legislation would have allowed for
Medicare to negotiate the prices of all pharmaceutical drugs.
But the final version that passed both chambers of Congress
when Democrats controlled the levers of power was far weaker.
The first ever Medicare drug price reduction process actually
begins in September when the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services CMS identifies its ten most costly drugs.
Following negotiations on that first wave of drugs,
new prices will go into effect in 2026,
when the agency could cut 4.8 billion in industry sales.
And the 4.8 billion is in regard to the lower prices that get negotiated
as a result of this new deal, this new rule that was passed by Congress.
Now it's a limited number of drugs and it won't go into effect until 2026,
and this only impacts Medicare recipients, cool.
Now in all fairness, while the regulation is laughably weak,
the drugs that are likely to be negotiated are very important ones.
So the blood thinner Eliquis from Bristol Myers Squibb and
Pfizer, Pfizer's breast cancer drug Ibrance and
AbbVie's leukemia treatment are likely to be among 10
big-selling medicines subject to the negotiations.
Okay, let's just pause for a second.
Pharmaceutical companies don't even want the Medicare
system to have the ability to negotiate drug prices.
How is that the free market?
How is that not crony capitalism?
It's so incredibly disgusting, and make no mistake about it.
The reason why the original regulation, the original proposal was watered
down to the extent that it was watered down is because both Democrats and
Republicans are bought by these pharmaceutical companies.
So they're gonna do the bidding of the pharmaceutical companies.
So they weakened the bill, they passed a watered down version of the original
proposal, and pharmaceutical companies are still not satisfied.
Even that pathetically weak law upsets pharmaceutical companies.
I mean, so much so that they're already on the war path to destroy it.
Six sources with ties to Big Pharma spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity,
and here's what they said.
Three industry lobbyists and lawyers said that unless Medicare
changes its proposals before it finalizes them in July,
drugmakers will likely file lawsuits arguing that the agency is not
complying with Biden's legislation nor the US Constitution.
What, okay, so they're just gonna do lawsuits to drag this out, drag out
the implementation, and potentially work their way to the Supreme Court,
which will very likely strike it down.
Now five of the world's top drug makers have already raised legal
concerns with the law and the agency's proposed roadmap.
Six sources said factors involving whether a drug is considered eligible for
negotiation may also contradict and unlawfully extend the law's provisions.
In particular, they said, the definition of a single source
drug sets too high a bar on whether a drug has competition.
There are other regulations that are likely to be challenged by pharmaceutical
companies.
For example, Reuters reports that Medicare's guidance includes rules
banning drugmakers from publicly discussing the negotiations and
imposes fines of $1 million a day for violations.
Now, I'm really curious why pharmaceutical companies have a problem with that.
Is it because it would prevent them from lobbying and publicly speaking about it?
Now, those could be challenged under the US Constitution's First and
8th Amendments protecting freedom of speech and against excessive fines,
respectively, said three sources representing drugmakers.
There are delay tactics involved too, so drug companies could file for
emergency injunctions to delay government negotiations according to one
lawyer who represents multiple manufacturers.
The lawsuits are more than just a tactic to delay
the implementation of new drug negotiation rules.
As Juliette Cubanski from Kaiser Family Foundation put it, litigation,
if successful, would notch another win for an industry that has
enjoyed many years of success in blocking legislative proposals it opposes.
So what really stands out to me in regard to this story, other than the insane
greed that we have come to expect from pharmaceutical companies,
is that unless we do away with the virus in our political system.
Unless we do away with the corruption, unless we do away with the legalized
bribery that allows for these pharmaceutical companies to pad
the pockets of our lawmakers, they're always gonna get their way.
They're gonna take Supreme Court justices on lavish trips.
They're gonna bribe our judicial system in those ways.
They're gonna bribe our members of Congress in other ways through campaign
donations.
I mean, that's baked into our system at this point.
And at the end of the day, they're gonna get what they want,
because they have paid handsomely to get what they want.
So how exactly is that a democracy?
And by the way, what the hell is the point of being a member of Congress
when your work means nothing, when even the pathetic watered down
garbage that comes out of Congress can be squashed immediately by the court system?
I mean, imagine looking back at your life as a United States lawmaker and
feeling proud of what you've accomplished, because fact of the matter is,
congress can't really accomplish much these days,
especially if they're trying to rein in corporate greed.
So when lawmakers talk about their legacy, when they obsess about their legacy, what
they should know is that as long as money in politics continues to be a problem,
their legacy means nothing.
They're just puppets for corporate America,
including pharmaceutical companies who love to take taxpayer money
in the form of research and development and then turn around and
price gouge us the second we need those medications to stay alive.
That's what this country really operates under.
We're not being ruled or governed by the people we've elected.
The people who actually call the shots in America are corporate executives,
our shareholders, and our people who stand to profit off of deregulation and
all sorts of corporate goodies.
It is unbelievable that even that weak sauce legislation has
gotten the pharmaceutical companies panties in a bunch.
But that's where they're at,
because God forbid they lose even a tiny bit of profit.
While more Americans are able to access the drugs they desperately need to
stay alive.