March 15, 2013—The Senate yesterday defeated an amendment to a government-wide fiscal 2013 spending bill that included language to establish a 340B drug discount program user fee.
Sen. Tom Harkin’s (D-Iowa) amendment to the Continuing Appropriations Act (H.R. 933), which needed 60 votes to pass, failed by a vote 54 to 45.[ms-protect-content id=”2799″] His amendment would had attached an appropriations bill for labor, health, and education programs to the House-passed continuing resolution that is needed to keep most government programs running through September.
Senator Harkin is the chairman of Senate Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee. A statement on the Senator’s website said his amendment “reflects the bipartisan compromise on the Fiscal Year 2013 Labor-HHS spending bill negotiated in December by Harkin and his Senate and House counterparts.”
The 340B language in the rejected amendment would have authorized the Secretary of Health and Human Services to collect a 0.1 percent fee (or a penny on every $10) on 340B drug purchases to fund the program’s operations. Manufacturers would have collected the fee from covered entities at the time of sale and deposited them into a government account, where they would have remained available until expended.
With total annual 340B sales now in the $6.7 billion range, according to the latest estimates from the 340B Prime Vendor Program, the fee would have brought in about $6.7 million. The Office of Pharmacy Affairs (OPA) currently receives about $4.5 million from Congress.
At a drug industry conference earlier this week, OPA Director Cmdr. Krista Pedley indicated that the Obama administration will once again propose a 340B user fee when it issues its 2013 budget plan in the coming weeks. She said, however, that as the administration’s proposal currently stands, manufacturers would not have a role in collecting the fee.[/ms-protect-content]