Fiscal cliff bill allows Medicare drug, Sensipar, 2 more years without any price controls.

[madfloridian]

Sounds like the company will make a huge profit over that time and will raise costs for Medicare. That company had just pleaded guilty in a major federal fraud case.

From the New York Times:

Medicare Pricing Delay Is Political Win for Drug Maker

WASHINGTON — Just two weeks after pleading guilty in a major federal fraud case, Amgen, the world’s largest biotechnology firm, scored a largely unnoticed coup on Capitol Hill: Lawmakers inserted a paragraph into the “fiscal cliff” bill that did not mention the company by name but strongly favored one of its drugs.

..." The language buried in Section 632 of the law delays a set of Medicare price restraints on a class of drugs that includes Sensipar, a lucrative Amgen pill used by kidney dialysis patients.

The provision gives Amgen an additional two years to sell Sensipar without government controls. The news was so welcome that the company’s chief executive quickly relayed it to investment analysts. But it is projected to cost Medicare, and thus taxpayers, up to $500 million over that period.

Supporters of the delay, primarily leaders of the Senate Finance Committee who have long benefited from Amgen’s political largess, said it was necessary to allow federal regulators to prepare properly for the pricing change.

The article mentions Amgen's closeness to "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, and Senators Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, and Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah".

A spokesperson for Baucus says he always votes for what is best for Montanans and people across the country.

[Thinkingabout]

1. Maybe Amgen needs to be investigated, I receive weekly injections of Amgen NPLATE

At a suggested charge of $2500 discounted to $1337 a week, we need to get Congress out of the bed with the pharmaceuticals and back to doing fiscal responsibility to the citizens of the US.

[madfloridian]

2. Seems they just pay a large fee and go on their merry way. This paragraph from the article:

"Amgen’s success also shows that even a significant federal criminal investigation may pose little threat to a company’s influence on Capitol Hill. On Dec. 19, as Congressional negotiations over the fiscal bill reached a frenzy, Amgen pleaded guilty to marketing one of its anti-anemia drugs, Aranesp, illegally. It agreed to pay criminal and civil penalties totaling $762 million, a record settlement for a biotechnology company, according to the Justice Department."

Paid a record settlement, weeks later got this deal. Amazing.