STAT+: The lone Democrat willing to weaken Medicare’s power to negotiate drug prices
A Democrat was willing to sign on to legislation that would weaken Medicare's power to negotiate drug prices, a key Biden achievement.
WASHINGTON — Two Republican lawmakers who introduced legislation to water down the Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare drug price negotiation program managed to find themselves a Democratic co-sponsor — even though every single Democrat in Congress in 2022 voted for the legislation.
They found their perfect candidate in Rep. Don Davis, a Democrat representing a North Carolina district that includes parts of the state’s Research Triangle. He came to Washington in 2023, so didn’t vote on the original law. He received donations in 2023 from the political action committees for Gilead, Astellas, Genentech, Bayer, Pfizer, Novo Nordisk, GSK, Bristol Myers Squibb, BIO, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck, AbbVie, and Eli Lilly.
“We must support the development of critical, life-sustaining medical treatments and cures,” Davis said in a written statement, and a spokesperson declined to elaborate. He is joined on the bill by Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) and Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), the Energy and Commerce health subcommittee chairman.
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