US Pharmacy News

Obama Suggests US Should Be Able To Negotiate Drug Prices

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- President Barack Obama on Thursday said prescription drug costs should be lower, and suggested giving the government power to directly negotiate drug prices and allowing medicines to be imported from abroad would be ways to lower prices.

The pharmaceutical industry has vehemently opposed both ideas, saying they would hamper innovation, harm the industry’s business model and expose Americans to unsafe drugs. Obama, during a live interview that aired on the video-sharing website YouTube, said the government should “look at” the two ideas.

His answer was prompted by a man who said his U.S.-made diabetes medicine is cheaper to purchase abroad. “Why does the same medication that I use cost so much less in Mexico or Canada, even though it’s being made right here in the United States?” the man said. He added, “We as a country need to fix this problem.”

The president said other countries can negotiate drug prices -the U.S. can’t. “We still don’t do that,” Obama said. He added, “I actually think it’s something we should do.”

The president’s health care law doesn’t include either option. The pharmaceutical industry, which favored the health law, wouldn’t have supported the overhaul if either were included.

The question about prescription-drug costs come as Republicans are working to repeal Obama’s overhaul of the health-care system. The law was aimed at expanding health-insurance coverage and lowering costs, though Republicans charge it will increase costs. Obama said he is open to ideas that will help make the health-care delivery system more efficient.

It’s unclear whether the Obama administration is seriously considering either of the ideas. The White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Obama noted that drug costs for some senior citizens have fallen in part because the pharmaceutical industry agreed to spend billions discounting the cost of drugs for seniors.

Wes Metheny, a senior vice president for public affairs at PhRMA, the main lobby for the pharmaceutical industry, said the industry still opposes allowing the government to negotiate drug prices and letting people import drugs from abroad. He said there is “no guarantee” that either would lower costs.

Allowing drug to be imported from abroad is something health officials from both Republican and Democratic administrations have opposed. The person Obama tapped to head the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Margaret Hamburg, said allowing drugs to be imported from abroad would endanger the medicine supply.

Pharma exports may touch a record Rs 50,000 cr in 2010-11

ports had registered near-muted growth in value terms during 2009-10.

The export revenue of the Indian pharmaceutical industry may touch Rs 50,000 crore for the first time ever, thanks to an estimated 20 per cent growth during 2010-11 over last year’s annual sales of Rs 42,092 crore.

The growth estimates turn significant as the medicine exports from India had registered near-muted growth in value terms during 2009-10, an indirect effect of the global economic slowdown that saw companies exhausting their inventories instead of making fresh orders the previous year, says Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) officials.

The expected growth is primarily linked to the fresh contracts from key export markets in North America and Europe.

“Pharmaceutical exports had grown only 4.13 per cent in 2009-10 as drug exporters were the last to be affected by the global economic slowdown. Things have changed and drugs worth Rs 15,161 crore were exported during the April-July period in 2010-11,” Pharmexcil Executive Director P V Appaji said. The revenues during the April-July period was 14.16 per cent higher than Rs 13,280 crore recorded during the same period a year before.

According to Appaji, the current growth percentage is about 20.

Incidentally, US market had shown strong growth trends even when the overall growth dipped to 4.13 in 2009-10. The fall was primarily led by decline in revenues from the European Union, which is India’s second-biggest medicine export market after the US. Africa, Latin American countries and countries that were part of the former Soviet Union had also showed decline in growth during this period.

US government seeks pharma feedback on cargo screening

The US Transportation Security Administration is seeking pharmaceutical industry comment on plans to bring forward 100 per cent screening of cargo carried by inbound international aircraft.

The TSA already mandates screening for domestic and international passenger aircraft originating in the USA, as well as high-risk inbound cargo, under measures introduced last year. Now however it has brought forward the 2013 deadline for screening 100 per cent of all inbound international cargo to December 31, 2011.

The new measures were announced in the wake of the incident last year in which two bombs disguised as toner cartridges were intercepted en route to the USA from Yemen.

Airlines, freight forwarders and cargo carriers have up to 45 days to comment on the new inbound requirement, and the TSA also wants to make sure that the requirements will not have a deleterious effect on access to medicines.

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