IRA forcing pharmas to leave cancer patients in the lurch, CEOs say
As ASCO kicks off, Genentech, Novartis CEOs say the law is causing them to delay launches for smaller indications
The IRA is leading pharmas to forego fast-to-patient development strategies in favor of getting onto the market first with the largest indications, the CEOs of Novartis and Genentech said Friday. Patients with smaller indications, such as mesothelioma and ovarian cancer, may have to wait years because the companies will prioritize launches of small molecules in larger indications such as lung and prostate cancer, they said.
Speaking at a press conference at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago, Vasant Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis AG (SIX:NOVN; NYSE:NVS), and Alexander Hardy, CEO of the Genentech unit of Roche (SIX:ROG; OTCQX:RHHBY), gave examples of how their companies are rescheduling and reprioritizing pipelines in response to the Inflation Reduction Act’s nine-year threshold for setting the prices of small molecule drugs. ...