Massachusetts House dilutes Medicaid drug pricing bill

The Massachusetts House of Representatives Wednesday took some of the sting out of Medicaid drug price regulation provisions that will be incorporated into a budget bill, passing an amendment that scraps requirements for drug manufacturers to publicly justify prices and eliminates a mandate for a state commission to publish proposed values for drugs. The amendment, which was crafted to respond to criticisms from the state's biopharma companies, also struck language that would have given the state attorney general power to prosecute companies for failing to comply with transparency requirements.

The final version of Amendment 1057 would continue to require the manufacturers of high-cost drugs enter into negotiations to give supplemental rebates to MassHealth, the state Medicaid program. It would apply to drugs with an annual net cost to individual MassHealth beneficiaries of $25,000 or more, or total annual sales to the program of at least $10 million...