August 8, 2025
TOPLINE
In case you missed it, The Wall Street Journal reported this week that a Big Pharma-supported policy, included in recently passed tax legislation, is likely to cost seniors and taxpayers far more than previously estimated. Big Pharma’s rider in the package was based on a bill called “The Optimizing Research Progress Hope And New (ORPHAN) Cures Act.” While purportedly meant to protect and foster pharmaceutical innovation, this misguided legislation would help brand name drug manufacturers keep prices high on a whole category of their products. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) previously estimated this pharma-backed policy would cost seniors and taxpayers $4.8 billion in higher prescription drug spending. But according to The Wall Street Journal, “The true tally of the new provisions could be far higher because CBO missed certain drugs such as Keytruda. The office plans to re-evaluate its analysis.”
Keytruda, which generated $8 billion in sales for its manufacturer Merck in the second quarter of this year alone, provides a case study in Big Pharma’s egregious pricing and anti-competitive practices. Already patent-protected in the U.S. until 2028, Merck is working to further extend monopoly pricing and undermine competition from more affordable alternatives beyond 2028, by seeking a new formulation and additional patents. According to research from I-MAK, Merck has already filed for 129 patent applications on Keytruda – more than half of which were filed after the drug’s initial approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). I-MAK estimates Americans will spend at least $137 billion on Keytruda while the drug faces no competition due to its extended exclusivity that already totals more than eight years — without reflecting the added impact of the Big Pharma giant’s new patent strategy.
As the full impact of Big Pharma’s loophole for high-priced blockbuster drugs comes to light, Congress should act to protect seniors and taxpayers from billions of dollars in higher prescription drug prices by repealing these harmful provisions. Read the full report in The Wall Street Journal HERE.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
“The Senator [Cornyn] has two bills introduced that were both reported unanimously out of the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this year, and have been for multiple Congresses, that would tackle two particular bad behaviors that, in the Senator’s view, impede this increased access to generics and biosimilars. The first is the Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act which would target the use of patent thickets in the patent dance… The second bill that Senator Cornyn has is the Drug Competition Enhancement Act. This bill addresses another particular behavioral issue. This is an antitrust issue called product hopping.”
Franci Rooney Becker, Chief Counsel to Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary
DATA POINTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
$5.6 Billon
The gross Medicare spending on Johnson and Johnson melanoma treatment Darzalex last year, another brand name product likely to be exempt from solutions to lower drug prices for seniors and taxpayers as a result of a recently passed pharma-backed policy, according to The Wall Street Journal.
TWEETS OF THE WEEK
@ACEJointHealth: “What good is a breakthrough medication if you can’t afford it? Patent manipulation can keep medication prices high. For patients who can’t afford them, high costs force many to skip or ration their medication.”
@Capitol_Forum: “The U.S. pays more for drugs because pharma companies abuse the patent system to block generics. @IMAKglobal 's report shows: 150+ patents on Ozempic Over $50B in delayed competition Generics enter years earlier in Europe.”
ROAD TO RECOVERY
STAT News: Trump Escalates Demands That Pharma Companies Lower Their Drug Prices
President Trump escalated his demands that pharma companies lower U.S. drug prices in line with what other countries pay, sending letters to 17 major drug companies Thursday that called on them to take actions by Sept. 29.
The New York Times: Trump Demands That Drugmakers Lower Some Of Their U.S. Prices By September
President Trump on Thursday sent letters to 17 of the world’s biggest drugmakers demanding that they reduce some of their U.S. prices to the much lower levels they charge other wealthy countries by late September.
NBC News: Trump Gives Drugmakers 60 Days To Slash Prescription Drug Prices
President Donald Trump sent letters to more than a dozen major drugmakers Thursday demanding that they lower the cost of prescription drugs in the U.S. within 60 days.
PHARMA’S POOR PROGNOSIS
The Wall Street Journal: Why Drug Prices For Some Big Medicines Will Remain High For A Longer Time
Thousands of Medicare recipients will have to wait longer to get some price relief on the expensive cancer drugs they depend on for treatment, while others might not get any reprieve at all. Two little-known provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by President Trump in July will delay Medicare price negotiations for some of the biggest-selling drugs in the world, including Merck’s Keytruda, which is used to treat cancer and had $17.9 billion in U.S. sales in 2024. Other drugs, such as Johnson & Johnson’s Darzalex, will be excluded entirely.
STAT News: The Murkiness Of Drug Companies’ Price Transparency Reports
Over the past decade, pharmaceutical companies have released carefully curated “price transparency” reports that make it appear the prices of their medicines are barely increasing — or even going down. But the reports disclose no pricing information about specific drugs, manipulating the reality of how much Americans spend on prescription drugs.
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