Separate Senate and House Medicare bills go next week to conference committee to be reconciled. Analysts say they expect the Senate measure to prevail on this issue. The House plan would allow Medicare to make payment decisions such as the one on Aranesp as long as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration established standards for determining whether two medicines are “functionally equivalent.”
Johnson & Johnson spokesman Mark Wolfe said the Senate bill wouldn’t change Medicare’s policy on Aranesp and declined to comment further. Amgen officials didn’t have an immediate response.
Beyond Cash Donations: How New Forms of Giving Are Transforming Not-for-Profit Accounting
Evolving Funding Landscape for Not-for-Profits Not-for-profit organizations are being asked to do more with less,…
Learn More
Medicare paid about $8.5 billion last year for medicines administered by doctors. As part of the overhaul legislation, Congress is trying to expand the program’s coverage to include prescription drugs patients can take themselves.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, chief
architect of the Senate’s Medicare bill, signed at least two
letters that questioned Medicare’s decision on Aranesp and sought
meetings with agency staff to discuss the matter.
Campaign finance records show Amgen became the second-biggest
contributor to Grassley, an Iowa Republican, in the last election cycle. Verizon Communications Inc. was No. 1. A Grassley spokeswoman has said that the donations didn’t sway his decision.
About 10 percent of Aranesp’s revenue comes from U.S.
hospital outpatient reimbursements.
Bloomberg News
