On June 23rd, 2024, The Hill published an Opinion Piece written by AFAR Board members Michael Hodin, PhD, and James L. Kirkland, MD, PhD, on the link between federal and state drug pricing policies and the potential failure of President Biden’s initiative focused on curing cancer.
The opinion underlined this critical point in the efforts to eradicate cancer, and further how the President’s and some State officials’ efforts to negotiate lower drug prices in Medicare threaten to derail future progress in this initiative. The piece also highlighted the importance of small-molecule medicines in lowering some health equity barriers as they are generally lower in price and more convenient as they can be taken at home.
Dr. Hodin and Dr. Kirkland explain further how the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) incentivizes large-molecule biologics, instead of small molecule medicines which include many cancer drugs taken in pill form. This lack of incentive may drive away future investment in small molecule drugs and could potentially limit the number of approved medicines, subsequent post-market studies, available indications, and treatment options for patients, particularly affecting therapies for cancer, brain diseases, HIV, and other disorders.
Read “Joe Biden’s ‘Cancer Moonshot’ may be derailed by new policies, including his own” here.
