Seniors’ drug discounts put at risk

Pharma giants have been quick to tout their efforts to help the Trump administration rein in runaway drug prices, but behind the scenes the industry has been lobbying furiously to roll back recently mandated medicine discounts for U.S. seniors.

Drug companies are focusing lobbying efforts to use a possible lame-duck session of Congress to peel back a legislative loss they suffered earlier this year, according to people familiar with the efforts. On the line for the drug industry is $1.9 billion next year, according to one estimate. Critics say the effort by the industry has the potential to increase costs for some of the most vulnerable and medically fragile Americans: seniors on Medicare.

Medicare covers most drug costs until a patient and their plan spend $3,750. Then, coverage drops off and doesn’t pick up again until a patient’s total out-of-pocket costs, including what drug companies pay in discounts, hit $5,000. That gap between coverage is the donut hole.

Almost 30 percent of seniors fell into the hole in 2014, according to data from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, and more are being affected as costs rise for drugs to treat conditions like diabetes, arthritis and cancer.

To make the donut hole less onerous, drugmakers had been required to give a 50 percent discount on their products once seniors hit the spending threshold. A legislative change in February backed by both parties increased the industry discount to 70 percent.

That extra discount is what drugmakers want to roll back, claiming that it goes too far and that the drug industry is taking too much of the expense. The lame duck session — in between the midterm elections Tuesday when Democrats are projected by many to take the House, but before they would actually be seated and take over in January — may be pharma’s best, last chance unless Republicans hold on.

Drugmakers are up against Democrats, who oppose rolling back the larger discounts, but may also struggle with the Trump administration, which has made lowering drug costs for consumers a policy priority.

In response, the industry has increased its muscle in Washington.

Giants like Johnson & Johnson, Amgen, AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly boosted spending on lobbying by 30 percent or more in the third quarter, according to an analysis by Bloomberg News.

“We support reducing the manufacturer coverage gap rebate percentage,” Ruud Dobber, president of AstraZeneca U.S., said in a statement.

Johnson & Johnson spent $1.98 million during that period, more than twice its expenditure during the same period a year earlier, according to lobbying disclosures filed with Congress. The company said the increase was to pay dues to trade associations. Its disclosure forms listed “issues related to Medicare Part D,” as the prescription drug program is known, as a key policy it sought to influence.

The drug industry has said it supports seniors paying less for drugs, just not at companies’ expense.