| FIRST IN RxP: CAMPAIGN AGAINST PHARMA AND PATENTS — The Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing is launching a seven-figure advocacy campaign that includes advertising, grassroots and grasstops in an effort to push patent reform, Megan reports. The group, whose members include large health insurer and hospital groups, is backing a slate of legislation moving on Capitol Hill that would thwart how large drugmakers use the patent system to maintain exclusivity over their products. The campaign is meant to “encourage policymakers to focus on holding brand-name drug companies accountable for their egregious pricing practices and abuse of the patent system that blocks competition from more affordable alternatives,” Lauren Aronson, a lobbyist and CSRxP's executive director, told POLITICO. For context: Insurers and pharmacy benefit managers have been in a policy tit-for-tat with the pharmaceutical industry, which is lobbying lawmakers to crack down on PBMs. PBMs negotiate discounts on medicines with drugmakers and decide which drugs insurance plans will cover. NOVO HIRES ARNOLD & PORTER TO LOBBY — Novo Nordisk, maker of blockbuster weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, is doubling down on efforts to lobby Congress to allow Medicare to cover anti-obesity medications. The drugmaker hired law and lobbying firm Arnold & Porter to push lawmakers to reverse a ban on allowing Medicare to cover weight-loss drugs in its Part D program, Megan reports. Medicare Part D and most commercial insurers cover Ozempic only for the treatment of diabetes. The people: Recently retired Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), who sponsored the bill to allow for coverage, joined Arnold & Porter in February. However, ethics rules bar him from lobbying his former colleagues in Congress for one year. The lobbyists working on the contract include Sonja Nesbit, who served as a senior HHS official during the Obama administration, and longtime GOP health care lobbyist Eugenia Pierson. Looking forward: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer aims to bring a drug price package to the floor this year, but whether it will be a broad vehicle is unclear.
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