The Rebate Rule: US Pricing Proposal Becomes Congressional Piggy Bank

26 Aug 2021

• By Michael McCaughan

A policy eliminating rebates in the Medicare Part D program will be delayed until Jan. 1, 2026 – and is very likely to be repealed altogether. If that staves off more draconian reforms, the biopharma industry will celebrate.

Piggy coin bank and stock candlestick chart going down for investments and savings loss

When the bipartisan infrastructure bill becomes law later this year, the US pharmaceutical industry will have contributed over $50 billion in “savings” to fund the new investments – but most companies won’t in fact feel the loss of a single penny.

Welcome to the world of Congressional Budget Office “scoring,” the official process by which Congress keeps track of how much...