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AstraZeneca Joins The $35 Inhaler Club; Medicare Patients Waiting On Congress For Membership

 
• By Alaric DeArment and Nielsen Hobbs

AZ’s move follows Boehringer’s announcement earlier this month and parallels what insulin sponsors did – but almost in reverse. For inhalers, political pressure on out-of-pocket costs has produced copay caps in the commercial market first, not Medicare.

• Source: Shutterstock

Less than two weeks after a similar move by Boehringer Ingelheim, AstraZeneca has moved to cap out-of-pocket costs for its inhalers at $35 for certain patients as drug makers face increasing political pressure to lower costs. But the announcement also creates pressure of a sort on the politicians that were leaning on the sponsors: The pricing cannot extend to the Medicare population without Congressional legislation.

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