HHS pick Azar draws the line on drug price ne­go­ti­a­tions at Medicare; As­traZeneca inks on­col­o­gy re­search deal at JPM

→ Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s pick to head HHS seems to have on­ly a lim­it­ed ap­petite for ne­go­ti­at­ing drug prices for Medicare. Alex Azar told a Sen­ate pan­el this week that there could be some op­por­tu­ni­ties for ne­go­ti­at­ing drug prices in Part B, but he’s hap­py with the way pri­vate con­trac­tors ne­go­ti­ate for Part D drugs. “Where we can do so that pre­serves in­no­va­tion and ac­cess, I want to look at those ar­eas, and in Part B I be­lieve we can do so,” Azar said, ac­cord­ing to a re­port from Bloomberg. While Trump loud­ly pro­claimed ear­ly on that he would be rad­i­cal­ly low­er­ing drug costs, the ad­min­is­tra­tion has been re­act­ing on the pol­i­cy side with con­sid­er­ably more re­straint. Azar, a vet­er­an of Eli Lil­ly, knows all about the in­dus­try’s po­si­tion on drug pric­ing and pre­serv­ing “in­no­va­tion and ac­cess.”

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER