As Prescribed

Several members of our firm’s life sciences team were on the ground at the 43rd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco from January 13 to 16, 2025. It was an exciting and sunny four days, during which key players from across the life sciences industry gathered to engage in deal discussions and consider upcoming trends for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and healthcare industries. Although there was a notable increase in the level of security at the conference given recent events, the overall sentiment of the conference was one of optimism.

In what can only be characterized as a necessary but significant proposed departure from current political initiatives focused on lowering pharmaceutical drug prices, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposes considerably increasing reimbursement for certain qualified diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals.

The Civil Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) released its annual fraud statistics for fiscal year 2022 on February 7. Of the $2.2 billion recovered under False Claims Act (FCA) settlements and judgments, more than $1.7 billion related to matters that involved the healthcare industry, including medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers.

The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) announced a model on February 14, 2023 that would allow CMS to pay less for drugs approved via FDA’s accelerated approval pathway before a clinical benefit has been confirmed by the required confirmatory studies.