
WASHINGTON — For a pharmaceutical industry that has spent two years sparring with health secretary Alex Azar, a former Eli Lilly executive fixated on the issue of high drug prices, President-elect Biden’s pick for the role, Xavier Becerra, may seem like incredible news. In his health policy work, Becerra has focused far more on Obamacare and health disparities than on the high price of medicines.
But one of Becerra’s earliest potential policy decisions might inflict more pain on the drug industry than anything Azar ever threatened.