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What Moderna owes the world

Carrie Teicher
STAT News

Moderna is expected to reveal its third quarter earnings on Nov. 4. The announcement will be a story of historic profits for the producer of one of the world’s…

Pelosi working to gather support for last-minute, last-ditch drug pricing policy

Rachel Cohrs
STAT News

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office is working to gather support for a last-ditch proposal to lower prescription drug costs after the White House shunned the issue…

What the Stalemate on Capitol Hill Means for Your Drug Prices image

What the Stalemate on Capitol Hill Means for Your Drug Prices

Sarah Jane Tribble, featuring Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
KHN

As President Joe Biden’s government overhaul stalls in Congress, tensions are mounting over what changes ― if any ― could come for Americans at the pharmacy counter.

An ad’s charge that drug price haggling would ‘swipe $500 billion from Medicare’ is incorrect image

An ad’s charge that drug price haggling would ‘swipe $500 billion from Medicare’ is incorrect

Victoria Knight, featuring Rachel Sachs Former Academic Fellow)
PolitiFact

The advertisement opens with a doctor sitting across from his patient and holding a prescription drug pill bottle. "You want to continue with this medication?" the doctor asks while an…

Pressure Mounts On USPTO To Join Drug Pricing Fight image

Pressure Mounts On USPTO To Join Drug Pricing Fight

Dani Kass, featuring Nicholson Price (Former Academic Fellow) and Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
Law360

Law360 (September 20, 2021, 6:01 PM EDT) -- Congress, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have called on patent officials in the…

Just Because FDA OKs a Medical Device, Doesn’t Mean It’ll Work: Expert image

Just Because FDA OKs a Medical Device, Doesn’t Mean It’ll Work: Expert

Adam Smith, featuring Jonathan Darrow (Former Student Fellow)
The Street

Jonathan J. Darrow, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard, tells how an increasingly complex regulatory system governs a nearly $175 billion industry - in which recalls are common.

In a new policy proposal, Biden presses Congress to let Medicare negotiate drug prices

Rachel Cohrs and Lev Facher
STAT News

WASHINGTON — President Biden on Thursday took his most concrete action to date on prescription drug prices, calling on Congress to pass a number of long-stalled reforms that include allowing…

Washington’s antitrust push could limit Amazon, Google’s health care ambitions

Rachel Cohrs
Stat News

WASHINGTON — Washington is abuzz with an ambitious new antitrust effort to rein in the power of tech industry power players like Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook — and the…

New Drug Could Cost the Government as Much as It Spends on NASA image

New Drug Could Cost the Government as Much as It Spends on NASA

Josh Katz, Sarah Kliff, and Margot Sanger-Katz, featuring Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
The New York Times

A newly approved drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease is expected to become a multibillion-dollar expense for Medicare. By one projection, spending on the drug for Medicare’s…

Opinion: The debate over the FDA-approved Alzheimer’s drug showcases our system’s skewed priorities image

Opinion: The debate over the FDA-approved Alzheimer’s drug showcases our system’s skewed priorities

Helaine Olen, featuring Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
The Washington Post

The Food and Drug Administration’s first approval of a drug to treat Alzheimer’s since 2003 should be a cause for celebration. Alzheimer’s is a scourge…

The Rhetorical Transformations and Policy Failures of Prescription Drug Pricing Reform under the Trump Administration image

The Rhetorical Transformations and Policy Failures of Prescription Drug Pricing Reform under the Trump Administration

Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
Journal of Health Policitcs, Policy, and Law

Throughout his four years in office, President Trump made prescription drug pricing a focus of his policy agenda. President Trump not only used strong language to criticize the pharmaceutical industry…

Reining in drug patents isn’t a silver bullet against high drug prices image

Reining in drug patents isn’t a silver bullet against high drug prices

Jacob S. Sherkow (Former Edmond J. Safra Center and Petrie-Flom Center Fellow)
STAT News

One of the top orders of business for the Biden administration is curbing drug prices. It’s a laudable goal. High drug prices are a major public health concern;…

EpiPen, Patents, and Life and Death image

EpiPen, Patents, and Life and Death

Jacob S. Sherkow (Former Edmond J. Safra Center and Petrie-Flom Center Fellow) and Patricia J. Zettler
New York University Law Review

Drug pricing disputes, while significant public health concerns, are not typically immediate life or death matters. But they may be for certain emergency medicines, medicines used for potentially lethal and…

Beyond The High Prices Of Prescription Drugs: A Framework To Assess Costs, Resource Allocation, And Public Funding image

Beyond The High Prices Of Prescription Drugs: A Framework To Assess Costs, Resource Allocation, And Public Funding

Jonathan J. Darrow and Donald W. Light
Health Affairs

During the past century, an accumulation of laws, organizations, and policy mechanisms has led to increasing transfers of public funds to private drug manufacturers, straining budgets and enabling industry revenues…

Public Options for Employers image

Video available now! Public Options for Employers: A Panel Discussion

January 21, 2021
Watch Videos

Check out the conversation on Twitter @PetrieFlom using #PublicOptions. Watch fully captioned video of the event. Event Description The American health care system struggles to meet the needs of all…

While pandemic takes top priority for Biden, experts see favorable landscape for drug pricing action in Washington image

While pandemic takes top priority for Biden, experts see favorable landscape for drug pricing action in Washington

Eric Sagonowsky, featuring Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
Fierce Pharma

Politicians of all stripes have run on promises to lower drug prices over the years, and outgoing President Donald Trump was no different. Fast-forward four years—past several attempts…

Column: Trump utterly failed to cut drug prices. Here’s how Biden could do better. image

Column: Trump utterly failed to cut drug prices. Here’s how Biden could do better.

Michael Hiltzik, featuring Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
Los Angeles Times

As a sort of sour welcome for the Biden administration and a final slap in the face for Donald Trump, America’s drug companies jacked up prices on hundreds…

Trump leaves behind largely unworkable drug-pricing policies image

Trump leaves behind largely unworkable drug-pricing policies

Erin Durkin, featuring Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
National Journal

Between legal challenges and practical implementation problems, President Trump isn’t leaving much policy for the Biden team to work with. But he did shift the drug-policy conversation.

Inside the collapse of a disrupter: How Haven’s high hopes of redefining health care came to a crashing halt

Erin Brodwin
Stat News

The dissolution of Haven marks one of the most stunning collapses in modern health care history. The venture, led by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase, was heralded immediately as…

Evidence Supporting the Value of Surgical Procedures: Can We Do Better? image

Evidence Supporting the Value of Surgical Procedures: Can We Do Better?

Jonathan J. Darrow (Former Student Fellow), Christopher T. Robertson (Former Academic Fellow), and Willard S. Kasoff
The American Surgeon

There is an acknowledged need for higher-quality evidence to quantify the benefit of surgical procedures, yet not enough has been done to improve the evidence base. This lack of evidence…

Purdue’s Demise Could Be A New Beginning For The Pharmaceutical Industry

Taleed El-Sabawi Leo Beletsky
Health Affairs Blog

North America’s overdose crisis remains a public health emergency, even as the COVID-19 pandemic has overtaken its grim death toll. The initial drivers of this crisis involved a…

Prospects Dim for Medicare Drug Reimbursement Cuts image

Prospects Dim for Medicare Drug Reimbursement Cuts

M. Alexander Otto, featuring Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
Medscape

A proposal to lower Medicare Part B reimbursements for 50 physician-administered drugs and biologics to what drug manufacturers receive for them in other wealthy nations seems unlikely to take effect as…

What Joe Biden could do to bring down drug costs image

What Joe Biden could do to bring down drug costs

Dylan Scott, quoting Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
Vox

Just as Joe Biden prepares to take over the presidency, the pharmaceutical industry is having its best political moment in years. Numerous Covid-19 vaccines are on the verge of approval,…

Trump unveils controversial drug price rules in a last-ditch attempt to fulfill campaign promise image

Trump unveils controversial drug price rules in a last-ditch attempt to fulfill campaign promise

Tami Luhby, featuring Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
CNN

President Donald Trump unveiled two controversial rules on Friday aimed at reducing drug prices -- a last-ditch effort to fulfill a key 2016 promise that immediately sparked legal threats from the…

Trump’s recent drug pricing rules likely courtroom-bound, may up costs image

Trump’s recent drug pricing rules likely courtroom-bound, may up costs

Donna Young, quoting Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
S&P Global

Two drug pricing rules President Donald Trump is finalizing Nov. 20 are likely to end up in court or jettisoned by the incoming Biden administration, policy and legal experts said. Trump…

Trump administration pushes last-ditch plans to lower drug prices image

Trump administration pushes last-ditch plans to lower drug prices

Jonathan Gardner and Ned Pagliarulo, quoting Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
BioPharma Dive

The Trump administration on Friday put in motion two last-ditch efforts to deliver on the president's repeated promises to lower prescription drug costs in the U.S., announcing a…

A Final Try by Trump to Cut Drug Prices May Stumble in Court image

A Final Try by Trump to Cut Drug Prices May Stumble in Court

Margot Sanger-Katz and Noah Weiland, quoting Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
New York Times

Health officials on Friday finalized a policy that would base the price Medicare pays for certain drugs on the lowest price paid in some other developed nations. It is the…

Expensive Drugs for Rare Muscle Disease Bring Only Minor Benefits image

Expensive Drugs for Rare Muscle Disease Bring Only Minor Benefits

Joseph Cariz, featuring Jonathan J. Darrow (Former Student Fellow)
AAAS

Two expensive and recently approved drugs for the rare condition spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) offer only modest benefits for patients despite their high costs, argue scientists after revisiting data and…

What The 2020 Election Means For Prescription Drug Policy image

What The 2020 Election Means For Prescription Drug Policy

Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
Health Affairs Blog

At the time of this writing, Former Vice President Joe Biden has been declared the President-elect, with Democrats having retained control of the House of Representatives. However, due to two…

Conservatives backed the ideas behind Obamacare, so how did they come to hate it image

Conservatives backed the ideas behind Obamacare, so how did they come to hate it

Christopher Robertson (Former Academic Fellow) and Wendy Netter Epstein
The Conversation

The Affordable Care Act is back before the U.S. Supreme Court in the latest of dozens of attacks against the law by conservatives fighting what they now perceive to…

Progressive group highlights Trump, Tillis weakness on insulin price tags image

Progressive group highlights Trump, Tillis weakness on insulin price tags

Aneri Pattani, quoting Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
PolitiFact

During the first presidential debate of 2020, President Donald Trump touted his efforts to curb skyrocketing drug prices and declared that insulin is now "so cheap, it’s like water."…

Trump’s Last-Minute Push For Legally Tenuous Prescription Drug Cards image

Trump’s Last-Minute Push For Legally Tenuous Prescription Drug Cards

Jonathan Cohn and Matt Fuller, quoting Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
HuffPost

In a gambit to boost President Donald Trump’s flagging poll numbers among seniors, the Trump administration is hastily assembling a plan that would put $200 debit cards for prescription…

Confronting State Medicaid Drug Spending Pressures image

Confronting State Medicaid Drug Spending Pressures

Rachel E. Sachs (Former Academic Fellow), Julie M. Donohue, and Stacie B. Dusetzina
JAMA

Across the country, state Medicaid budgets are under increasing strain, driven by factors including the high and increasing prices of prescription drugs. Nearly 30% of state spending supports Medicaid programs,1 and…

Health officials scrambling to produce Trump’s ‘last-minute’ drug cards by Election Day image

Health officials scrambling to produce Trump’s ‘last-minute’ drug cards by Election Day

Dan Diamond, quoting Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
Politico

Caught by surprise by President Donald Trump’s promise to deliver drug-discount cards to seniors, health officials are scrambling to get the nearly $8 billion plan done by Election Day,…

For Many in the U.S., Prescription Drugs Still Unaffordable image

For Many in the U.S., Prescription Drugs Still Unaffordable

Tanzina Vega, interviewing Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
The Takeaway

There were many notable moments at last week’s chaotic presidential debate, from President Trump’s refusal to condemn white supremacy to his swipes at Democratic nominee Joe…

Experts Uncertain If the President’s Drug Import Plan Will Save Consumers Money image

Experts Uncertain If the President’s Drug Import Plan Will Save Consumers Money

Roz Plater, quoting Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
HealthLine

On average, people in the United States spend about $1,200 a year on prescription drugs. That’s more than anywhere else in the world. With copays and out-of-pocket costs soaring,…

Trump order on drug prices faces long road to finish line image

Trump order on drug prices faces long road to finish line

Peter Sullivan, quoting Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
The Hill

President Trump is seeking a preelection boost on a top issue for voters — lowering drug prices — but there are doubts about when and if his latest move will…

CEOs join regulators and top scientists vowing to hold the line on Covid-19 vaccine. But will that get in the way of Trump’s ‘big surprise’? image

CEOs join regulators and top scientists vowing to hold the line on Covid-19 vaccine. But will that get in the way of Trump’s ‘big surprise’?

John Carroll, quoting Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
Endpoints News

Nine top developers leading the race to develop a vaccine to combat Covid-19 are presenting a unified front this morning as they jointly commit to holding the line on any…

Explaining California v. Texas: A Guide to the Case Challenging the ACA

MaryBeth Musumeci
Kaiser Family Foundation

The Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) future continues to be uncertain as the law’s constitutionality will once again be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court in…

Trump Again Claims He’s Bringing Down Drug Prices, But Details of How Are Skimpy image

Trump Again Claims He’s Bringing Down Drug Prices, But Details of How Are Skimpy

Victoria Knight, quoting Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
KHN

President Donald Trump has long considered lowering the high cost of prescription drugs to be one of his signature issues, and it is likely to be a talking point he…

Multi-Agency Funding for COVID-19 Vaccine Development image

Multi-Agency Funding for COVID-19 Vaccine Development

Jacob S. Sherkow (Former Edmond J. Safra Center and Petrie-Flom Center Fellow in Ethics of Technology and Biomedical Innovation), et al.
Written Description

Complete author list: Jacob S. Sherkow (Former Edmond J. Safra Center and Petrie-Flom Center Fellow in Ethics of Technology and Biomedical Innovation), Lisa Larrimore Ouellette, Nicholson Price (Former Academic Fellow),…

Pharma CEOs privately scoff at Trump’s drug pricing orders: “Not expecting any impact” image

Pharma CEOs privately scoff at Trump’s drug pricing orders: “Not expecting any impact”

Igor Derysh, quoting Rachel Sachs (Postdoctoral Fellow Alumna)
Salon

Pharmaceutical executives have publicly spoken out against President Trump's executive orders aimed at reducing drug prices, but several CEOs in the industry have told shareholders that they are "not…

Lawmakers Reach Deal on $8.3 Billion Emergency Coronavirus Bill: The spending package dwarfs what the Trump administration requested to confront the virus.

Emily Cochrane
New York Times

WASHINGTON — Racing to confront a growing public health threat, key lawmakers in the House and Senate reached a deal on Wednesday to provide $8.3 billion in emergency aid to combat…

Kept at the Hospital on Coronavirus Fears, Now Facing Large Medical Bills: Care was mandated by the government, but it’s not clear who has to pay.

Sarah Kliff
New York Times

[...] Patients in the United States regularly confront surprise medical bills that are hard to decode. Mr. Wucinski’s case suggests that those held in mandatory isolation for suspected coronavirus…

Prescription Drug Policy: The Year in Review, And the Year Ahead image

Prescription Drug Policy: The Year in Review, And the Year Ahead

Rachel Sachs (Former Academic Fellow)
Health Affairs

From the article: This past year, prescription drug policy issues remained at the forefront of the national health policy conversation. With widespread public agreement across the political spectrum that action…

Judges Rule Individual Mandate Is Unconstitutional, But Kick Case Back To Lower Court For Review Of Severability

Kaiser Health News

KHN Morning Briefing: Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations In a long-awaited decision, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans agreed with Judge…

Some Big Health Care Policy Changes Are Hiding In The Federal Spending Package

NPR Staff
NPR

Congress is set to pass a $1.4 trillion spending package this week, which President Trump has said he'll sign. The legislation includes policy changes and funding increases that public health…

Democrats Tout Federal Patent Take-Backs for Lowering Drug Costs image

Democrats Tout Federal Patent Take-Backs for Lowering Drug Costs

Valerie Bauman, quoting Rachel Sachs (Academic Fellow Almumna)
Bloomberg Law

From the article: “March-in rights hasn’t been used before, so it’s hard to know what it would look like in practice,” said Rachel Sachs,…

Prescription Drug Legislation In Congress: An Update image

Prescription Drug Legislation In Congress: An Update

Rachel Sachs (Academic Fellow Alumna)
Health Affairs

From the article: Over the past week, there have been developments in both houses of Congress on drug pricing legislation. In the House of Representatives, the Democratic caucus is expected…

The House Passed Its Prescription Drug Plan — Here’s What’s In It image

The House Passed Its Prescription Drug Plan — Here’s What’s In It

Selena Simmons-Duffin
NPR

From the article: Right now, drugmakers can raise the price of a drug as much as they want, whenever they want, as long as the market can bear it. Under…

ACA Insurers In The Supreme Court: Why Consumers Should Pay Attention

Phil Galewitz
NPR

More than $12 billion is at stake for the nation's health insurers Tuesday when the Supreme Court hears a case involving the Affordable Care Act. For the federal government, the…

Nearly 700,000 SNAP Recipients Could Lose Benefits Under New Trump Rule

Pam Fessler and Rachel Treisman
NPR

[...] Provisions of the new rule are slated to take effect on April 1, 2020. But opposition to the change is strong, and legal challenges are possible. States say it will impose a…

Is A Single Payer Health Care System Politically Feasible For The U.S.?

Bob Oakes
WBUR (NPR Boston)

Even among those who agree that a single payer health care system in this country would be more efficient and cost effective, there's another debate. Is it politically feasible? …

Will sky-high drug prices spur the US to use an obscure power over patents? image

Will sky-high drug prices spur the US to use an obscure power over patents?

Jonathan Gardner, quoting Rachel Sachs (Academic Fellow Alumna)
BiopharmaDive

From the article: The problem with appealing to march-in rights as a solution is the government has always refused to use the power it holds — as the Genzyme case…

White House report on Pelosi drug-pricing bill flawed, health policy experts say image

White House report on Pelosi drug-pricing bill flawed, health policy experts say

Donna Young, quoting Rachel Sachs (Academic Fellow Almumna)
S&P Global Market Intelligence

From the article: Rachel Sachs, an associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, noted that most of the economic logic the White House used would apply to…

Health Law Workshop: Jacob T. Elberg: Corporate Health Care Enforcement at a Crossroads: Newly Available Data and the Need for Comprehensive False Claims Act Reform

December 2, 2019

Presentation Topic: "Corporate Health Care Enforcement at a Crossroads: Newly Available Data and the Need for Comprehensive False Claims Act Reform" About the Presenter Jacob T. Elberg is Associate Professor…

The American Way of Paying for Drugs Isn’t Working image

The American Way of Paying for Drugs Isn’t Working

Editorial Board, citing Rachel Sachs (Academic Fellow alumna)
The New York Times

Rachel's testimony was linked in the phrase "Existing laws" From the article: To understand why that’s a fair and worthwhile trade-off, it’s important to understand…

Health Law Workshop: Nicholas Bagley: The ACA and Executive Power, Ten Years In

October 21, 2019

Presentation Topic: "The ACA and Executive Power, Ten Years In" The readings for this presentation are not available for download. About the Presenter Nicholas Bagley is Professor of Law at…

15+ Years of PEPFAR image

15+ Years of PEPFAR: How U.S. Action on HIV/AIDS Has Changed Global Health

October 7, 2019
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Couldn't join us for the event? Check out some of the speakers' slide presentations and blog posts! Description In May 2003, the U.S. Congress passed bipartisan legislation authorizing a…

Trump promotes private Medicare coverage, drawing contrast with Democrats’ health care plans

Rachel Roubein
Politico

President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order expanding private Medicare Advantage plans, contrasting his health care vision with Democrats' calls for a greater government role in health care. …

Patient Assistance Programs and Anti-Kickback Laws

By Katherine Kraschel, JD (Student Fellow Alumna) and Gregory Curfman, MD
JAMA

From the article: Patient assistance programs provide financial support to patients who cannot afford their prescription drugs. In this issue of JAMA, Kang et al1 describe troubling findings about independent…

Florida Wants To Import Medicine From Canada. But How Would That Work?

Selena Simmons-Duffin, quoting Rachel Sachs (Academic Fellow Alumna)
NPR Shots

From the article: Prescription drugs are often significantly cheaper outside the United States. "Canada negotiates drug prices just like many other countries around the world," explains Rachel Sachs, a law…

Research Associate (Health Care), The Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, Harvard Business School

Deadline: Open until filled.
Applicants should not reach out to Professor Porter directly.
>Read the full job posting and apply online!

Duties & Responsibilities The Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness (www.isc.hbs.edu) is a joint Institute of Harvard University and Harvard Business School, dedicated to supporting and extending the…

Providing Value and Redesigning Care for Serious Illness

April 26, 2019
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Description The shift to value-based care presents opportunities to improve care delivery for advanced illness. This panel featured thought leaders who identified key challenges and shared their visions for a…

The Future of Medicaid’s Health Care Safety Net: A Health Policy and Bioethics Consortium

April 12, 2019

Description Medicaid is a federal- and state-subsidized health insurance program that covers about 75 million lower income people and is one of the largest payers for health care in the United…

The drug pricing debate is stuck in the past

Caitlin Owens, quoting Rachel Sachs (Academic Fellow Alumna)
Axios

From the article: There’s a scientific and economic revolution happening in medicine, and the political debate over drug prices isn’t keeping up. Not only are policymakers…

The Future of Health Care?: Medicaid Buy-In and State Trailblazing in Health Care

March 15, 2019
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Learn more about the "State Medicaid Buy-In Tracker" map here. Description States can be laboratories of health reform. States like Massachusetts and Oregon expanded coverage during previous periods of federal…

Petrie-Flom Center Seeks RA for Project on Drug Pricing

Petrie-Flom Center

Call for Applications: Research Assistant, Drug Pricing in the U.S. and Globally The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School seeks a Research…

Call for Applications: Research Assistant, Drug Pricing in the U.S. and Globally, Petrie-Flom Center, Harvard Law School

Deadline: January 25, 2019

Description: The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School seeks a current Harvard graduate student to serve as Research Assistant in support of…

When is a Medical Treatment Worth $850,000? The Value of Luxturna and Gene Therapy Treatments: A Health Policy and Bioethics Consortium

December 14, 2018

Luxturna, a gene therapy treatment for a rare form of inherited blindness, was recently approved and administered for the first time to a patient at Massachusetts Eye and Ear in…

Seventh Annual Health Law Year in P/Review

December 7, 2018
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Description At the Seventh Annual Health Law Year in P/Review symposium, leading experts discussed major developments during 2018 and what to watch out for in 2019. Speakers covered hot topics including…

Health Law Workshop: Anya Prince

November 19, 2018

Presentation Topic: "Gene Therapy's Field of Dreams: If You Build It, Will We Pay?" This paper is not available for download. To request a copy in preparation for the…

An MD’s Take on Single-Payer Health Care

November 16, 2018

The ACA’s passage sparked a national dialogue about what type of health care works best for the United States. Having failed to repeal the ACA, the current administration…

Expansion of the Medicare 340B Payment Program

Peter B. Bach and Rachel E. Sachs (Academic Fellow Alumna)
JAMA

From the article: "The 340B program began as a means to lower the cost of outpatient medications for a small set of underresourced health care facilities that served primarily low-income…

Drug Pricing Policies in the United States and Globally: From Development to Delivery

October 24, 2018
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Couldn't join us? Check out the conversation on Twitter: @PetrieFlom #drugpricing and some of our speakers' slide presentations below! Description This one-day conference explored the current pharmaceutical pricing landscape…

Conflicts of interest and the (in)dependence of experts advising government on immunization policies

Jean-Christophe Bélisle-Pipon (Visiting Scholar), Louise Ringuette, Anne-Isabelle Cloutier, Victoria Doudenkova, and Bryn Williams-Jones
Vaccine

From the article: There has been increasing attention to financial conflicts of interest (COI) in public health research and policy making, with concerns that some decisions are not in the…

Achieving Equitable Access to Vaccines: From Policies to Provisions

October 17, 2018

Description In order to achieve the objectives of global health organization policies those policies must be translated into actionable provisions and agreements. The Global Healthcare Innovation Alliance Accelerator endeavors to…

Health Law Workshop: Christina S. Ho

October 15, 2018

Presentation Download the Presentation: "Health Impact Assessment: A Negative Right to Health" About the Presenter Professor Christina S. Ho is Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School. She joined the…

Ethical Investment in Global Public Health Security: A Health Policy and Bioethics Consortium

October 12, 2018

Description Health emergencies around the world in recent years have included SARS, MERS, Ebola, and influenza. These epidemics have caused substantial mortality, destabilized governments, and served as significant risks to…

In The Battle To Control Drug Costs, Old Patent Laws Get New Life

Shefali Luthra, quoting Rachel Sachs and W. Nicholson Price (Academic Fellow Alumni)
Kaiser Health News

From the article: Simply taking a patent doesn’t bring down prices, either. There are other ways manufacturers gain favorable market positioning for specific drugs, said Rachel Sachs, an…

The Health 202: Trump vowed drug companies would lower prices. That hasn’t happened yet.

Paulina Firozi, quoting Rachel Sachs (Academic Fellow Alumna)
The Washington Post

From the article: The AP found in the two months after Trump’s prediction of major cuts, price increases outpaced decreases by a 16.5-to-1 ratio. During that time there…

Preventing Epidemics in a Connected World: Part of Outbreak Week at Harvard University

September 28, 2018
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Description Led by the Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI), Outbreak Week was a University-wide effort to commemorate the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed more than 50 million people around the globe. As…

Health Law Workshop: Zack Buck

September 24, 2018

Presentation Download the Presentation: "The Price of Universality: Sustainable Access and the Twilight of the ACA" About the Presenter Zack Buck specializes in health law, and his scholarship examines governmental…

Health Law Workshop: Matthew J. B. Lawrence

September 17, 2018

Presentation Download the Presentation: "The Social Consequences Problem in Health Insurance and How to Solve It" About the Presenter Matthew J. B. Lawrence is Assistant Professor of Law at Penn…

Capitol Checkup: Medicare indication coverage; pre-existing conditions battle

Donna Young, quoting Rachel Sachs (Academic Fellow Alumna)
S&P Global Market Intelligence

From the article: "Allowing for indication-based coverage could result in some drugs not being available for some indications, but it could also result in drugs that aren't being covered…

Generic Drugmakers Embrace Inter Partes Review Process

Zachary Brennan. quoting Jonathan Darrow (Student Fellow Alumnus)
RAPS Regulatory Focus

From the article: [Generic Drugmakers Embrace Inter Partes Review Process]Thanks to Congress’ administrative alternative to court litigation of patents, generic drug manufacturers have embraced a new process, known…

Perspective: Will Courts Allow States to Regulate Drug Prices?

Christopher Robertson (Academic Fellow Alumnus)
NEJM

From the article: Pharmaceuticals are consuming increasingly large portions of U.S. state budgets, and high prices are preventing patients from getting, and adhering to, essential medicines. In mid-May 2018, President…

Here’s what’s behind the ads accusing Bob Hugin of ‘killing off cancer patients’

Herb Jackson, quoting Rachel E. Sachs (Academic Fellow Alumna)
northjersey.com

"They're resorting to tactics the FDA criticized. Under the guise of patient safety, this is really about preserving a monopoly position," said law professor Rachel Sachs, who teaches at…

Delinking Reimbursement

Rachel Sachs (Academic Fellow Alumna)
Minnesota Law Review

Introduction: Recently, scholars and policymakers on both sides of the aisle have become interested in the legal and regulatory structures surrounding pharmaceutical approval and reimbursement in this country. Scholars focusing…

A Fear of Lawsuits Really Does Seem to Result in Extra Medical Tests

Margot Sanger-Katz, featuring Michael Frakes (Academic Fellow Alumnus)
The New York Times

From the article: Mr. Gruber and Michael D. Frakes, a Duke economist and lawyer, looked at the health care system for active-duty members of the military. Under longstanding law, such…

Defensive Medicine: Evidence from Military Immunity

Michael D. Frakes (Former Academic Fellow) and Jonathan Gruber
National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series

From the abstract: We estimate the extent of defensive medicine by physicians, embracing the no-liability counterfactual made possible by the structure of liability rules in the Military Heath System. Active-duty…

The Health 202: This mother’s tweet about drug prices went viral. Trump’s plans are unlikely to help

by Colby Itkowitz, quoting Rachel Sachs (Academic Fellow Alumna)
Washington Post

From the article: “It’s going to take a lot of time and there's a lot of hurdles in the way, but that’s not what…

Unpacking the bold — and the bluster — in Trump’s plan to bring down drug prices

by Erin Mershon, quoting Rachel Sachs (Academic Fellow Alumna)
STAT

From the article: The administration says the proposal will save Medicare money, which could translate into lower premiums. It will also mean lower co-pays for any beneficiary who might need…

The Trump administration finally has one good idea to lower drug prices

by Dylan Scott, quoting Rachel Sachs (Academic Fellow Alumna)
Vox

From the article: Right now, in the above circumstances and when there isn’t an actual drug shortage, “we don’t have a good policy solution,”…

Update: UK Ministers Quit Over Brexit

Interview featuring Rachel Sachs (Academic Fellow Alumna)
BBC

From the interview: We consider the implications for Brexit as two senior UK ministers resign. David Henig is UK director of the European Centre For International Political Economy. He explains…

HHS forced to choose migrants over medicines

By Dan Diamond, quoting Rachel Sachs (Academic Fellow Alumna)
Politico

From the article: Echoing the pharma industry, Verma stressed that the state's request violated current law — the first time she's publicly cited a legal defense. “[I…

What Pfizer, Trump, and consumers got out of a surprising deal — and what they didn’t

By Erin Mershon and Ike Swetlitz, quoting Rachel Sachs (Academic Fellow Alumna)
STAT

From the article: After months of pledging he would get pharmaceutical companies to lower their prices, President Trump can now say that he pressed the CEO of a major drug…

The Health 202: ‘ACA’ removed from swaths of Medicaid.gov website, watchdog reports

By Colby Itkowitz, quoting Rachel Sachs (Academic Fellow Alumna)
Washington Post

From the article: As The Post’s Damian Paletta also noted, the announcement was an example of Trump’s successful use of the presidential bully pulpit. “This…