While lawmakers have focused this year on ways to cut government spending for prescription drugs, one segment of the pharmaceutical market wants help getting new products onto the market: antibiotics. Researchers and drug industry representatives are warning lawmakers about the rise in infections that don’t respond to existing antibiotics and the lack of investment in new medicines to fight the next generation of bacteria. The drug industry group BIO, as well as the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, have formed a coalition asking lawmakers to boost Medicare payments for some new antibiotics, hoping that will spur more private investment in the area. Bloomberg Government’s Alex Ruoff discusses his story with Nancy Lyons in the Bloomberg 99.1 Washington newsroom…
Listen to their discussion on Bloomberg here.