ICYMI: Health care policy should be driven by patients, not politics

Recently, I spoke on the panel, “The Impact of a Pivotal Presidential Election on the Biopharma Industry,” at Financial Times’ US Pharma and Biotech Summit. I joined Terri Stewart, Senior Vice President, Head of Global Healthcare Government and Public Affairs at EMD Serono and Eric Gascho, Senior Vice President, Policy and Government Affairs at the National Health Council.

The panel provided a platform to advocate for the protection of the biopharmaceutical innovation ecosystem. We discussed the groundbreaking treatments that biopharmaceutical companies are bringing to patients today and the need to have a policy environment that supports the ecosystem that makes this possible and ensures patients can access and afford the treatments they need.

Here are a few takeaways from the conversation:

1. We need health care reform that ensures medicine savings and discounts make their way to patients instead of padding profits for hospitals and middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). 

2. Government price setting included in the Inflation Reduction Act allows political bureaucrats to insert themselves between patients and their doctors, especially during an election year.

3. The 340B Program is a profit center for PBMs, chain pharmacies and big hospital systems instead of for the patients it is intended to serve. 

Learn more about PhRMA’s work to protect patients here.