India’s Sun Pharmaceutical Industries is among nine drugmakers that have signed an agreement with the United States government to extend “Most Favoured Nation” (MFN) pricing in America.
The company said it would extend MFN pricing to state Medicaid programs and commit to doing the same for future innovative medicines. “The agreement recognises Sun Pharma’s investment in the US market by delaying Section232 tariffs on innovative pharmaceutical products for over two years,” a note from the company said, adding that other terms of the agreement were confidential.
US President Donald Trump, on Monday, had announced nine new agreements with pharmaceutical manufacturers “to lower prescription drug prices for Americans in line with the lowest prices paid by other developed nations (known as the most-favored-nation, or MFN, price). The agreements bring the total number of pharmaceutical manufacturers with MFN deals to 26, covering 89% of the branded drug market,” a White House communication said.
The nine midsized companies besides Sun Pharma were Alcon, Astellas Pharma, BeOne Medicines, BridgeBio, CSL, Kyowa Kirin, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and UCB. The agreements reduce prices on drugs that treat numerous costly, chronic, and even rare diseases, including hemophilia, Parkinson’s disease, macular degeneration, glaucoma, liver disease, skin conditions, and various forms of cancer, the White House note said. “Sun Pharma will contribute 71.4 tons of clindamycin and 6.75 tons of doxycycline; both antibiotics to treat bacterial infections, to the SAPIR,” it added. (SAPIR or Strategic Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Reserve (SAPIR) is a US programme to stockpile Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients.)
Sun Pharma’s US presence
Sun Pharma had recently further cemented its US presence by inking an agreement to acquire US company Organon & Co., a $11.75 billion transaction. Rick Ascroft, Sun Pharma’s North America CEO, represented the company at the White House signing ceremony. “The United States is a key area of investment and expansion for Sun Pharma across clinical development, sales and marketing, and both API (active pharmaceutical ingredients) and finished products manufacturing,” he said.
Sun Pharma has been building its US specialty/innovative portfolio. It ranks second by prescriptions in US dermatology and continues to expand across dermatology and immunology, cutaneous oncology, and ophthalmology, complementing a robust consumer health products and generics business, the company said. The US is Sun Pharma’s largest market for innovative medicines and is part of its long-term growth strategy, accounting for 27 per cent of the company’s global revenue.
US agreements
As of August 31, the US administration said, it had agreements with Pfizer, AstraZeneca, EMD Serono, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Merck, Novartis, Sanofi, Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie, Regeneron, Alcon, Astellas Pharma, BeOne Medicines, BridgeBio, CSL, Kyowa Kirin, Sun Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and UCB.