In his speech on Monday on ways to combat high drug costs, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar was careful not to mention any one company by name when talking about some medicines that Medicare Part D must automatically cover.
But it certainly appears that he was pointing a finger at Celgene.
During his talk, Azar discussed what are called the six “protected classes” of medicines in the Part D program —antidepressants, antipsychotics, seizure drugs, anti-retrovirals, immunosupressants (for organ rejection), and anti-neoplastics, which are cancer treatments. All, or substantially all of these drugs must be covered in order to ensure patient access to medicines for treating serious conditions (see page 28).
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