Inside pharma’s push to amend new drug-pricing law

Indeed, companies are making real-time decisions about what’s worth investing in going forward. And, given the fact that price negotiation for small-molecule drugs begins much sooner, many firms have said that development of those drugs may suffer.

The CEOs of Merck and AstraZeneca warned that the law could make it less likely that their companies would invest in follow-on indications for oncology drugs or launch new cancer meds. In November, Eli Lilly said that it will abandon work on a blood-cancer drug due to the new law.