What’s Next For The International Pricing Index? Parsing A Strange US Senate Vote

Senate Finance drug pricing bill is moving forward, with two critical amendments defeated by 14-14 tie votes. One would have stripped the inflation penalty from the bill, which probably would have killed any bipartisan momentum. The second targeted the Medicare Part B International Pricing Index and was defeated by a truly surprising set of votes.

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For the biopharmaceutical industry there were two critical tie votes during the US Senate Finance Committee mark-up of the “Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act of 2019.”

Both came on amendments offered by Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey:

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