Medicare’s Shorter Drug Rebate List Raises Questions About Data

The removal of two Gilead Sciences Inc. drugs and five others from a list of products subject to rebates to Medicare for large price increases should prompt a closer look at the sales data the agency collects from manufacturers, analysts say.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on March 30 quietly updated a March 15 press release on the first Part B drugs for which their manufacturers will be required to pay rebates to the Medicare program for prices that rise faster than the rate of inflation. Gilead’s cancer cell therapies Yescarta and Tecartus, which were on the initial ...