Mer­ck joins its peers with plan to cut ac­cess to dis­count­ed drugs for con­tract phar­ma­cies

Back in May, HHS looked like it was tak­ing con­trol of its 340B drug dis­count pro­gram, which re­quires drug­mak­ers to pro­vide mas­sive price dis­counts to hos­pi­tals that treat low-in­come pa­tients.

HHS at the time sent stern let­ters to As­traZeneca, Eli Lil­ly, No­var­tis, No­vo Nordisk and Sanofi for ac­tions they took to lim­it ac­cess to these dis­count­ed drugs, with HHS threat­en­ing steep fines and mak­ing clear that the 340B statute “does not per­mit man­u­fac­tur­ers to im­pose con­di­tions on cov­ered en­ti­ties’ ac­cess to 340B pric­ing, in­clud­ing the pro­duc­tion of claims da­ta.”

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