Azar's Plan To Tie U.S. Drug Prices To Foreign Ones Will Impact Investments In R&D

Enter Alex M. Azar II, a former executive at drug giant, Eli Lilly, and now Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). At the Brookings Institute last fall, Azar made news by proposing changes which would enable the government to reduce payments for the 27 highest-cost physician-administered drugs – drugs that are part of the Medicare Part B program. His rationale was simple:

“In Medicare Part B today, the government gets the bill, and we just blindly pay it, plus six percent for the provider who administers it. There is no negotiation, and the payment mechanism actually encourages prescribing more expensive drugs.”