Dive Brief:
- Since Hillary Clinton took to Twitter with her outrage over Turing's Daraprim price hike, the Nasdaq Biotech Index has lost $130 billion in value.
- Valeant CEO Michael Pearson, one of the names most associated with buying old drugs and hiking their prices (think of Isuprel and Nitropress as just two recent examples) is now signaling his company's decision to back off of this practice, according to Financial Times.
- Other companies, such as Allergan, are also reportedly rethinking their price hike strategies.
Dive Insight:
What does it take to get major players in the biopharma industry to rethink a long-used, revenue-raising tactic such as hiking old drugs' prices? Apparently, $130 billion loss in market value and a sustained public shaming campaign by politicians and the media. When big players like Pearson start to weigh in on the side of discontinuing this practice, it suggests a different long-term outlook for the industry.
This doesn't mean that the practice will be completely discontinued, however. It's posssible that it may just shift to a more stealthy, drawn-out method. Nonetheless, all eyes are on drug prices and demonstration of value-based pricing is becoming an increasing focus in the healthcare industry, even among companies that have long been considered outliers in terms of pricing strategies.
Valeant and Allergan aren't the only firms that have admitted that it's time to rethink this paradigm, either. Teva global R&D chief Michael Hayden also recently called for a more responsible approach to drug pricing (despite the company's own controversial drug price hikes).