Lilly Teams With Anthem to Seek Changes in Drug Promotion, Pricing

Eli Lilly has teamed up with health insurer Anthem to draft a pair of position papers asking federal regulators and legislators to fundamentally rethink the way manufacturers and payers interact.

The joint papers ask that federal rules prohibiting promotion of unapproved new drugs to health insurers be eased, along with restrictions on pricing policies to allow pay-for-performance contracts.

The first paper — “Facilitating Open Communication About Emerging Therapies” — asks that regulators and legislators loosen restrictions on the promotion of products awaiting FDA approval to enable manufacturers to “speak openly with health plans about drugs going through the FDA approval process, particularly with regard to product efficacy, safety, and pharmacoeconomic information.”

Lilly did not respond to a request for comment by press time.