BIO's Policy Pulse: Preview of BIO Vice Chair John Crowley Testimony on Price Controls

A preview of this week’s House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Hearing on the Inflation Reduction Act: “At What Cost: Oversight of How the IRA’s Price Setting Scheme Means Fewer Cures for Patients.” Aiken Hackett, BIO’s VP of Federal Government Relations, previews the hearing and tells us what to expect. (September 20, 2023)

The House hearing on how Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) price controls limit innovation and access to medicine will feature testimony from John Crowley, Chairman of Amicus Therapeutics and BIO Board Vice Chair. The House Energy & Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee will explore how Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) implementation of price controls “will result in fewer lifesaving cures and treatments and negative outcomes for patients.”
The hearing memo notes drug makers are forced into non-negotiable price “negotiations,” must agree to accept a price before entering “negotiations,” and lack due process to appeal CMS decisions. BIO agrees—and opposes the IRA’s drug price controls and CMS guidance and handling of the process, which will inhibit investment and innovation. Congress will hear from someone who knows: John Crowley, who has worked to develop treatments for Pompe disease, a rare and severe neuromuscular disorder afflicting two of his children. A Navy combat veteran, he also promotes veterans’ access to care.

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