{"id":361114,"date":"2026-04-03T00:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T00:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/361114\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T00:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T00:37:13","slug":"pharmas-reluctance-to-serve-europe-to-dodge-mfn-drug-pricing-is-chilling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/361114\/","title":{"rendered":"Pharma’s Reluctance To Serve Europe To Dodge MFN Drug Pricing Is Chilling"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n <\/a><\/p>\n

The pharmaceutical industry\u2019s giants succeeded last year in shifting some of the concerns about drug pricing onto pharmacy benefit managers<\/a>, while publicly agreeing with the White House to lower some prices. These splashy announcements helped create the illusion that action had been taken to help Americans pay less for their prescription medicines, and the pharma industry enjoyed a slight improvement in its image. The CEOs, the faces of these companies, were appearing before the general public pledging to drop prices. It was all great stuff.<\/p>\n

But many analysts and other industry experts believe that didn\u2019t really happen<\/a>, as the prices for many of the medicines offered on the TrumpRx platform were already declining.<\/p>\n

Even the prices for GLP-1 medicines, which indeed came down, were more driven by market dynamics than a directive from the president.<\/p>\n

And now, a darker side of these efforts to duck President Donald Trump\u2019s Most Favored Nation<\/a> drug pricing initiative is becoming apparent. Companies are now planning to skip launching new medicines in some European nations to avoid setting a reference price that might reduce how much they can charge in the U.S. Insmed is delaying the launch of inflammatory lung disease drug Brinsupri even though it\u2019s been cleared in Europe.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Pills,<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Following Insmed\u2019s decision to hold off on launching a newly approved lung disease drug in Europe, experts anticipate more companies will do the same as they seek to avoid price erosion in the U.S. Will Chinese biotechs fill the void?<\/p>\n

April 1, 2026<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0<\/p>\n

3 min read<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0<\/p>\n

Others are reassessing their strategies, too, according to a recent report from Reuters. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing first signs of delayed introductions into Europe,\u201d Stefan Oelrich, a Bayer executive and president of trade group the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, told the outlet.<\/p>\n

I spend a lot of time trying to reveal the human side of this business. The people and scientists who create and innovate, cure diseases and inspire medical breakthroughs. They save lives. I hear all the time that the work pharmas do is all about the patients.<\/p>\n

Is this about the patients? Withholding promising new drugs from Europeans so that Americans can be charged more?<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t seem to help anyone at all. Americans still get charged exorbitant amounts for new medicines\u2014likely amounts that the average person can\u2019t afford\u2014and Europeans don\u2019t get them at all.<\/p>\n

I get it. We have to pay for innovation somehow. The U.S. is the biggest and most lucrative market in the world. I don\u2019t have a solution, but I know for sure that withholding important medicines from patients who desperately need them isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Doctors Without Borders\/M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res (MSF) launched a public campaign this week<\/a> to pressure Gilead into selling its newly FDA-approved HIV prevention medication Sunlenca. The nonprofit claims that, while they can afford the product, Gilead is refusing to boost production beyond a supply of 2 million that has been provided to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Businessman<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Only a handful of the top pharmas have signed Most Favored Nation drug pricing deals with the White House, while smaller biotechs continue to hang in limbo.\n <\/p>\n

January 6, 2026<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0<\/p>\n

5 min read<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0<\/p>\n

MSF claims that this isn\u2019t enough, and that many countries that need the medicine can\u2019t get it due to restrictions placed by Gilead.<\/p>\n

\u201cGilead must decide whether it prioritizes protecting people or protecting control and profit,\u201d said Tom Ellman, director of MSF\u2019s Southern Africa Medical Unit. \u201cThis is a chilling echo of the policies we saw in the 1990s when antiretrovirals were provided to those in the Global North while the rest of the world was denied access and many lives were lost to HIV\/AIDS.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, Gilead did not respond directly to the situation with MSF but said the company is \u201ccommitted to ensuring broad, sustainable access to lenacapavir for HIV prevention in high\u2011incidence, resource\u2011limited countries.\u201d Gilead is working with other organizations<\/a> and initiatives, including the Global Fund and the President\u2019s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to provide access to the preventative drug<\/a> and generics manufacturers have been granted early access to produce copies of it. Let\u2019s hope these parties can come together to provide these nations with everything they need to prevent HIV.<\/p>\n

Any actions that restrict patient access to desperately needed medications are indefensible. I agree with MSF. This moment in pharma\u2019s history is chilling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The pharmaceutical industry\u2019s giants succeeded last year in shifting some of the concerns about drug pricing onto pharmacy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[134,524,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-361114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-medication","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}