Pharma group punches back on drug prices as pressure rises

(Bloomberg) — A top pharmaceutical lobbying group will begin a counteroffensive against scrutiny of industry pricing practices, responding to criticism from both major U.S. political parties in a contentious presidential election season.

“Our industry has become an easy scapegoat for the real and growing problem of patient access to affordable new medications,” Jim Greenwood, chief executive officer of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, will say Wednesday at the group’s convention in San Francisco, according to a copy of remarks obtained by Bloomberg News. “My friends, we are fighting back.”

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Industry and investor anxiety is mounting as presidential candidates ramp up their criticism. Republican Donald Trump has said he could save U.S. taxpayers billions by negotiating with drugmakers on drug prices for federal health programs. After Democrat Hillary Clinton tweeted in September that she would release a plan to fight drug costs, biotechnology stocks tumbled.

“I worry that we take progress for granted and investors can move to places with less regulatory friction,” Stephen Ubl, chief executive officer of the Washington lobbying group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), said Saturday in an interview.

Scrutiny rose as Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., Laval, Quebec, and Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, New York, were lambasted by Congress this year for their practice of sharply raising prices on older drugs, and investors are urging biotech and pharma leaders to turn the tide in the increasingly biting national conversation on drug prices. Representatives of large mutual funds including Boston-based Fidelity Investments, Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Boston-based Wellington Management Co. met with pharma leaders in March, exhorting them to defend their practices.

Valeant and Turing “have given the entire industry a bad name,” said Ira Loss, a senior health care analyst at the Washington Analysis LLC research firm. “Research-oriented companies were slow to react and distinguish themselves from the companies.”

On Wednesday, BIO will hand out fact sheets to attendees with talking points to be used in defense of the industry. One key focus will be an attempt to shift more responsibility to insurers, who have called attention to drugmakers’ prices.

Sparring with insurers

“Insurers have been throwing the pharma and biotech industry under the bus, which is short-sighted of them,” Joshua Bilenker, chief executive officer of Stamford, Conn.-based Loxo Oncology Inc., said Saturday in an interview at the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology in Chicago. “The insurance industry has squeezed the consumer to make them mad.”

Insurers have instituted policies on drug reimbursement that harm patients, according to Greenwood’s remarks.

“When insurers accept patients with pre-existing conditions — only to refuse to cover innovative medications — there’s a name for that: It’s discrimination,” Greenwood, a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, plans to say.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. insurance industry lobby, Washington-based America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), didn’t immediately respond to phone calls and an e-mail seeking comment.