News from Friday, January 16, 2026
Articles
The Push for Lower US Drug Prices Uses Bad Logic
(1/16, Lisa Jarvis, Bloomberg) comments “...‘Let’s have a serious and reasoned conversation about what drugs are worth here in America, and let’s develop an American system for aligning prices with value as we perceive it, rather than trying to take a shortcut, which ultimately doesn’t benefit American patients and their families,’ Darius Lakdawalla, chief scientific officer at the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics, said at a recent KFF event.” Subscription Required
Trump's Demand for Higher NHS Drug Costs Would Be 'Huge Backwards Step', Medicines Watchdog Says
(1/16, Chris Smyth, Aanu Adeoye, Financial Times) reports “...Jonathan Benger told the FT there would be a ‘diminishing return’ from more rises in the cost at which drugs were considered to be cost effective and that, for the UK, there were better ways to boost life sciences investment...Benger, in his first interview since becoming chief executive of NICE last month, said the government would either need to increase taxes or cut other public spending to fund this increase in expenditure on drugs.” Subscription Required
US Pharma MFN and Tariff Dynamics: What EU and UK Leaders Need to Know
(1/16, Ivo Carre, PhD, Jaehyuk Lee, MSc, Dr Kasia Koczula, PharmaPhorum) comments “...Manufacturers are facing upward pressure on visible list prices, as they work to avoid being the lowest comparator in MFN reference baskets. To balance these higher list prices, companies are increasingly relying on managed-entry agreements, risk-sharing arrangements, and other commercial access strategies that link value to outcomes for payers. At the same time, launch strategies are becoming more selective and staggered, particularly for marginal indications or late-line settings, to prevent low early prices from feeding back into MFN calculations.” Full
Press Releases
PhRMA Statement on the White House's Great Healthcare Plan Announcement
(1/15, PhRMA Press Release) “Today, Alex Schriver, Senior Vice President of PhRMA's Public Affairs team, released the following statement...‘Imposing broad-based price controls does nothing to address insurance barriers and would instead threaten access to breakthrough treatments and undermine critical investments that strengthen the U.S. economy. The Trump administration has rightly called out other countries for failing to pay their fair share for medicines. Importing those same flawed policies into the U.S. would undermine our leadership at a time when China is poised to surpass us in medicine development.’” Full
PRI Files Amicus Brief in Major Supreme Court Case That Could Upend Future Medical Innovation Nationwide
(1/16, Pacific Research Institute Press Release) “...Rather than engaging in genuine negotiation, the brief explains, the government uses its dominant position as the largest purchaser of prescription drugs to impose take-it-or-leave-it price controls that manufacturers cannot realistically refuse. PRI’s brief explains that companies would be given only the illusion of choice, as refusal triggers crushing penalties that make participation in the program unavoidable. The result, the brief argues, is not negotiation but confiscation by coercion...Beyond its constitutional flaws, PRI’s brief cautions that the program threatens future medical innovation by reducing the financial incentives that drive the development of new and life-saving treatments.” Full
Journals
Comparative Effectiveness of Two Antimicrobial Regimens for the Treatment of Pan-Drug-Resistant Acinetobacter Baumannii Infections: Results from the DESPAIR Study
Konstantinos Pontikis, et al.
January 15, 2026, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
Potential Impact of the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan for Medicare Part D Beneficiaries With a Cancer Diagnosis
Authors: Aryana Sepassi, PharmD, MAS, et al.
January 15, 2026, Journal of Clinical Oncology