Daily Beast: Congressman Pushed Bills That Would’ve Helped Drug Company He Owns

“Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) has targeted infusion drugs for removal from a federal program called 340B. The program requires pharmaceutical companies that participate in Medicaid to sell drugs to certain hospitals at deep discounts, some as much as 50 percent. The majority of those drugs are infusion drugs like Innate’s MIS416, which treat deadly diseases and are the some of the most expensive on the market with some individual sessions costing tens of thousands of dollars.

Collins has sought to remove infusion drugs by changing the “patient definition,” of 340B, according to a summary of a bill he drafted in 2017 that was obtained by The Daily Beast. The change would require drugs purchased with 340B discounts to only go to uninsured patients. Since most patients receiving infusion drugs are insured, removing them from 340B would remove infusion drugs from the program.

Those drugs represent 70 to 80 percent of all drugs purchased through 340B—or more than $8 billion in lost hospital revenue per year, according to Madeline Wallack, a former official at the Department of Health and Human Services who worked on 340B at the agency and now runs a consulting firm that helps hospitals maximize the program’s benefits. That money would go directly back to pharmaceutical companies like Innate.”

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