John Murphy. Photo: Courtesy of AAM
We spoke with the incoming CEO of the Association for Accessible Medicines, John Murphy, to get a sense of his priorities as the generic drug industry's point person in D.C.
- He comes to the generic drug industry from BIO, where he was chief policy officer. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What are your priorities?
At a big, high level, I think part of my vision, and I've talked extensively with the AAM board about this, is really to be extraordinarily vocal and utilize a lot of more diverse allies in the supply chain for pharmaceuticals, from patients to providers to health system pharmacists.
- We have created this extraordinarily successful industry that provides 90% of the medicines that Americans need on a day-to-day basis at a fairly affordable price, but we are now in a place where that race to the bottom effectively has created fissures within the industry.
- [Change is needed] to stymie the onslaught of shortages we're seeing in the market.
- The Senate Finance team has worked really hard on this drug shortages bill, which I think is a critical step in the right direction. I think it would be great for us to see attention to that in the lame duck, although you and I know there are political realities.
Do you feel that you need to revitalize AAM or get more aggressive on where the organization is and where you want to take it?
I view my role [as] coming in and being that stable new CEO that the board has been spending a good amount of deliberative time trying to find.
- I don't think that my coming in is evidence of a need to make any big strategic pivots. I think instead that they want to add and amplify the narrative on issues associated with the sustainability of this industry in the United States.
The Inflation Reduction Act has made a lot of changes in the drug space in general. How do you view them?
Market forces would do a much better job providing lower prices over the long run than an arbitrary government intervention in those markets.
- I don't think it's an overly positive development for anybody in the drug industry. And I can't pontificate now on if there's a Republican sweep in November, if that spells doom for the IRA, I just don't have any idea. Sounds like they want to talk about that.
Are you starting to prepare for a Trump win versus a Harris win?
I view them as focusing almost exclusively on branded industry issues at the moment.
- I would like to get to the point in a fairly short order where anybody who is elected president is talking about the generics and biosimilars industry in a way that highlights the need to take action to develop a sustainable pricing and supply chain model in the United States.
How are you thinking about biosimilars? How much work is there to do, and how well is the uptake going now?
We're seeing continued impediments to widespread adoption of the biosimilars that are currently approved and those that are awaiting launch.
- And I think we have to do something about that.… Obviously, it's no surprise that AAM has made statements about PBMs and they're standing in the way of more robust biosimilar adoption.
