STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re reading about drug net prices inching up, uncertain pharma M&A, and more

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the middle of the week. Congratulations on making it this far, and remember there are only a few more days until the weekend arrives. So keep plugging away. After all, what are the alternatives? While you ponder the possibilities, we invite you to join us for a delightful cup of stimulation. Our choice today is banana split, a tasty addition to the bulging Pharmalot pantry. Remember that no prescription is required — so no co-pay or rebate is involved. Isn’t that something? Meanwhile, here is the latest menu of tidbits to help you on your way. Have a wonderful day, and please do stay in touch….

Top health care investment bankers say that large deals involving pharmaceutical and biotech companies are stalling as executives grapple with mercurial White House economic policies that have roiled markets and set off a global trade war, Reuters says. The excitement late last year over U.S. President Trump’s election and prospects for a subsequent flurry of mergers and acquisition deals has quickly faded, and political uncertainty is pushing some deals out by a few months or even quarters. C-suite meetings scheduled to talk about company valuations and price negotiations are now spent guiding bewildered executives through Trump’s shifting policy moods, whether they directly impact their companies or not. They say Trump’s decisions to install a vaccine skeptic as health secretary, dismiss thousands of employees at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, push for cuts to drug prices, and slash federal research grants all have the potential to erode revenue and reduce the future pipeline for new drugs.

The net prices that health plans paid for medicines — after subtracting rebates, discounts, and fees — rose a modest 0.4% in last year’s fourth quarter, but that compared unfavorably with a 3% decline in the same period a year earlier, STAT writes, citing data from SSR Health, a research firm that tracks the pharmaceutical industry and its pricing trends. A key reason was that net prices rose for so-called protected oncology medicines, one of six classes of drugs for which Medicare Part D generally covers an entire category. Typically, these six classes have smaller and more stable discounts compared with other medicines in the marketplace. As a result, net prices rose faster for protected classes, but it is not clear why this occurred more so with cancer drugs. Meanwhile, list prices for all drugs grew 1.4% in the first quarter of the year compared with 5.4% a year earlier. Most of the slower growth rate was traced to major insulin makers lowering prices.

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