Category Archives: Policy News

BioUtah on Feb. 28 joined Utah’s rare disease community, including patients, families and advocates, in recognizing 2023 Rare Disease Day at an inspirng event hosted at Recursion headquarters in Salt Lake City. Recursion CEO, Chris Gibson, along with BioHive Executive Director Aimee Edwards, kicked off the evening’s program which featured a panel of young rare […]

Congress is expected to vote this week on a massive omnibus government funding bill that would run through the end of the 2023 fiscal year. The legislative text was released on Tuesday. The $1.7 trillion, 4,155-page bill includes a number of significant healthcare provisions. Of particular interest to the life sciences industry are provisions included […]

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) has introduced the “Protecting Drug Innovation Act” which would roll back Medicare’s authority to set drug prices through a new punitive negotiation program. This government price-setting policy was a key component of the Democrats’ “Inflation Reduction Act” (IRA). The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the IRA’s drug pricing provisions […]

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and a group of like-minded colleagues are preparing to send a letter to CMS Administration Chiquita Brooks-LaSure urging the agency to issue a proposed rule by year’s end to provide accelerated Medicare coverage for emerging medical technologies. Medicare patients should have timely access to innovative and beneficial care, which can change […]

U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) on August 15 spent the day connecting with Utah’s life sciences community, known as the BioHive, touring facilities at BD, IONIQ Sciences, SEEK Labs and Carterra. His schedule also included a tour of Altitude Lab in the University of Utah’s Research Park where he led a roundtable discussion with nearly […]

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) on Wednesday said he had signed off on a revised “Build Back Better” plan, renamed the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022,” which includes sweeping drug price controls along with tax increases and billions for climate and energy spending. The bill’s drug pricing provisions would allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices […]

Senate Democrats are inching closer to a vote on a revived “Build Back Better” package, largely focused on drug pricing. The package would give Medicare the authority to negotiate drug prices and impose inflation rebates. The negotiation process, in practice, would function more like government price controls since drug manufacturers deemed non-compliant with the requirements […]