J&J’s new drug-discount program criticized by hospitals (NYSE:JNJ)

Healthcare suppliers are up in arms towards Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) after the pharma big, on Friday, considerably modified a program beneath which sure hospitals can get reductions for costly medicine, The Wall Street Journal reported.

According to the WSJ, the corporate has launched a new rebate system for hospitals collaborating within the authorities’s 340B program, by which healthcare suppliers serving uninsured and low-income sufferers can get reductions on expensive outpatient medicine.

Citing a letter from JNJ, the Journal stated that beneath the revised program, hospitals must pay full worth for JNJ’s blockbuster medicines, Stelara and Xarelto, upfront and later apply for a rebate.

The business group, the American Hospital Association, was fast to criticize JNJ’s transfer, noting that it’s an “instance of huge drug firms taking unilateral actions to benefit themselves on the expense of hospitals that look after America’s most weak sufferers.”

The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based firm defended itself, arguing that it was geared toward stopping what it known as “rampant abuse and misuse” of the 340B program.

“To assist the 340B Program higher serve weak sufferers, J&J is implementing cheap, commonplace enterprise practices used throughout different authorities packages and contracts,” an organization spokesperson stated.

Xarelto, a blood thinner marketed by JNJ and Bayer (OTCPK:BAYZF) (OTCPK:BAYRY), has already been focused by the federal government as a part of the Medicare worth negotiation program launched beneath the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. Meanwhile, psoriasis remedy Stelara will face low-cost generics within the U.S. subsequent 12 months.