Cici Rojas, president, The Latino Coalition, left, and President Joe Biden (D) | TheLatinoCoalition.com / WhiteHouse.gov
Cici Rojas, president, The Latino Coalition, left, and President Joe Biden (D) | TheLatinoCoalition.com / WhiteHouse.gov
A provision of the “Inflation Reduction Act” (IRA) could threaten investments in "small molecule" drug development, said the Missouri-based president of The Latino Coalition.
There are currently up to 5 St. Louis biopharma companies involved in that type of drug development, according to Biopharmguy.com.
“The IRA discourages companies from investing in the research and development required to end cancer as we know it,” wrote Cici Rojas, chair of The Latino Coalition, in a December 2023 Kansas City Star op-ed. “The legislation empowers Medicare to lower certain drug prices through negotiation and penalties.”
“The problem is that the new law doesn’t treat all types of drugs the same way,” wrote Rojas.. “The research community distinguishes between small-molecule drugs, which are typically pills, and large-molecule or biologic drugs, which are made from living cells and usually administered intravenously or via injection in clinics.”
Rojas, a cancer survivor, is also chair of YMCA of the USA and president of Kansas City marketing agency, Tico Productions, LLC.
Sally Pipes, president of the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) told South SFV Today that this so-called "small molecule penalty" will “have an outsized impact on our efforts to develop treatments for cancer.”
Pipes said that the announcement by Stanford University researchers in December that they had discovered an “on/off switch” for breast cancer is but one example of a “small molecule” drug innovation.
The IRA, signed into law by President Joe Biden (D) in 2022, contains a drug provision in which the brand-name drugs for which Medicare "negotiates" prices are split into two categories: small-molecule drugs and biologics.
The IRA makes small-molecule drugs eligible for "negotiation" nine years after their approval, compared to a 13-year exemption period for biologics.
“While both small-molecule drugs and biologics are essential for cancer treatment, small-molecule drugs are the only way to target some forms of breast, lung, colon, and other cancers,” Pipes said.
An October 2023 paper, authored by University of Chicago economists, said that the IRA small molecule provision will result in “188 fewer small molecule treatments, including 79 fewer new small molecule drugs and 109 fewer post-approval indications for these drugs.”
How many St. Louis biopharma companies are involved in “small molecule” drug development?
Source: Biopharmguy.com
Alerts Sign-up