BioCentury
ARTICLE | Politics, Policy & Law

Executive power

Executive agencies, not Congress, will be pharma's greatest threats in Washington

September 12, 2016 7:00 AM UTC

Years of congressional gridlock have caused power in Washington to shift to the White House, making the levers of power less accessible to pharmaceutical industry lobbyists. While Congress will continue to mine outrage over drug pricing for headlines, the most potent attacks on drug pricing models will be launched from executive agencies, regardless of who is elected president.

Provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) released many of the constraints Congress had imposed on CMS's ability to adopt new reimbursement policies. President Barack Obama will hand his successor new legal authorities and precedents for using the bureaucracy to implement policies that have traditionally been the purview of Congress, as well as an extensive list of policy prescriptions for applying administrative remedies to reduce drug prices and spending...