Biopharma battling drug price regulations in Massachusetts

The Massachusetts House of Representatives is set to vote this week on a bill that would regulate the prices of the highest-cost drugs purchased by the state’s MassHealth Medicaid program. Massachusetts biopharma companies are fighting back, mobilizing the 70,000 industry employees who live in the state to demand that their legislators back an amendment that would water down the proposed drug price regulations.

While life sciences companies have fought against drug price control bills in state capitals across the country, biotech CEOs are especially upset to be facing one of the sharpest attacks on their home turf. “It is a bit of an irony for the Commonwealth [of Massachusetts] which has been a beacon for the life sciences industry to propose government negotiations on drug pricing,” John Maraganore, CEO of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ALNY) and chairman of BIO, told BioCentury...