All 40 seats in the State Senate and 80 seats in the Assembly were up for votes last Tuesday, and while there were indications that the Democratic party was facing political headwinds going into Election Day, the party’s majorities in the Assembly will expand by at least five seats and be sustained in the Senate. While voter turnout statewide was not significantly greater relative to elections four years ago, with approximately 26% of registered voters participating as of November 9, turnout was high in some key districts, including in the 11th, 3rd and 4th districts. In addition, Democrat Andrea Katz defeated current Republican Assemblyman, Brandon Umba, in an extremely close election in the 8th District—a seat that has not been won by a Democrat in decades.

By either flipping or maintaining seats in those districts, along with a fairly surprising pick-up in the consistently Republican 30th District, the Democrats’ majorities in the Assembly will be 51-29 and remain at 25-15 in the Senate when the next legislative session commences at the beginning of January.

It was already established that there will be a considerable number of new members of the Legislature irrespective of the election due to either retirements or members of the Assembly seeking seats in the Senate. In total, there will be about 32 seats that will be occupied by a new legislator, and — while some are due to a current or former member of the Assembly moving to the Senate — the majority will be members who are new to the Legislature. Specifically, the districts that will host new legislators include:

• LD-3: Sen. John Burzichelli*; Asm. Dave Bailey Jr and Heather Simmons
• LD-4: Sen. Paul Moriarty*; Asm. Dan Hutchison and Cody Miller
• LD-8: Sen. Latham Tiver; Asw. Andrea Katz (Possible)
• LD-9: Sen. Carmen Amato Jr; Asm. Gregory Myhre
• LD-10: Asm. Paul Kanitra
• LD-11: Asw. Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul
• LD-12: Sen. Owen Henry
• LD-14: Asw. Tennille McCoy
• LD-16: Asw. Mitchelle Drulis
• LD-17: Asm. Kevin Egan
• LD-24: Asw. Dawn Fantasia and Asm. Michael Inganamort
• LD-27: Sen. John McKeon*; Asw. Rosaura “Rosy” Bagolie and Alixon Collazos-Gill
• LD-28: Asw. Garnet Hall
• LD-30: Asm. Alexander “Avi” Schnall
• LD-31: Sen. Angela McKnight*; Asw. Barbara McCann Stamato
• LD-32: Sen. Raj Mukherji*; Asm. John Allen and Asw. Jessica Ramirez
• LD-33: Asm. Julio Marenco and Gabriel “Gabe” Rodriguez
• LD-34: Asw. Carmen Morales and Asm. Michael Venezia
• LD-39: Asm. John Azzariti
• LD-40: Asm. Al Barlas

*current or former legislator

The regional partisan distribution for the next New Jersey Legislature

(Blue: Democratic, Red: Republican, Purple: split party representation in the Assembly)

Accordingly, the next Legislature will benefit from significant engagement to ensure that policymakers are aware of the contributions that the life sciences sector provides to the State’s economy and Patients worldwide. We look forward to working with every elected legislator to ensure that New Jersey remains home to some of the most active biomedical innovation in the country.

For the immediate future, now that the current Legislature is entering its lame duck period, which begins on Monday, November 20, some of the issues that were discussed going into campaign season may resume deliberation up until the next session. In particular, the State’s transit system, teacher shortages, senior services and renewable energy are anticipated to be debated.

For discussion of pre-election polling by the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, click here.

Finally, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (LD-19) was reelected to the Speakership last week, which will make him the longest serving Assembly Speaker in New Jersey history. Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald (LD-6) was also re-elected. Similarly, Senate President Nick Scutari (LD-22) and Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz (LD-29) were re-elected as well.

For any thoughts or questions, please contact VP of Government Affairs, Ian McLaughlin, at IMcLaughlin@BioNJ.org.

Congress has until this Friday to avoid a government shutdown as the current Continuing Resolution expires. Yesterday, the House passed a spending bill by a vote of 336-95, with most opposition derived from members of the Republican party once again. The bill that passed would implement the two-stage funding extensions initially proposed by new Speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), which will extend funding for some governmental departments to January 19, 2024 and others into February 2024, is being considered by the Senate today. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has indicated that he expects to get the Continuing Resolution to the President's desk by the deadline of Friday night to avoid a government shutdown.

Today, First Lady Tammy Murphy announced that she will seek the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Senator Bob Menendez. The First Lady joins several other elected officials who have either declared interest or official campaigns, including Rep. Andy Kim (D, NJ-3). The First Lady emphasized several policy priorities, including her signature work on Nurture NJ, which focuses on addressing disparities in maternal and infant health outcomes across communities throughout the State and has helped New Jersey move from being ranked 47^th in the nation for maternal and infant mortality in 2020 to 29^th this year according to America's Health Ranking.

To view First Lady Murphy's campaign announcement video, click here.

Earlier this year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published a proposed rule with the succinct title of “Medicaid Program; Misclassification of Drugs, Program Administration and Program Integrity Updates Under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program.” These policies are deeply concerning and would result in marketplace shifts in the drug supply chain that would place significant burdens on manufacturers and result in programs like 340B to be compromised and increased out-of-pocket costs.

In particular, CMS is proposing to change the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program (MDRP) such that the Medicaid Best Price calculation would be redefined. Rather than being defined by reference to a single price available to a particular entity, CMS would require manufacturers to “stack” cumulative discounts, rebates and other arrangements across multiple entities. Fundamentally, CMS would define “Best Price” as the lowest price that a manufacturer provides to any particular entity.

In addition, the proposal would impose new reporting obligations through a new drug price verification survey, estimating that approximately 200 drugs would be selected for the survey and require information that would include wholesale acquisition costs, expected utilization, costs of production, research and marketing, clinical characteristics and other nonproprietary information regarding covered outpatient drugs. This information could be posted publicly and CMS could request manufacturers address specific information in a public forum.

Given that the 340B program is intended to support access to authentic safety-net providers and medically underserved Patients and has notoriously ballooned far beyond its intended purview due to recent changes in how the program defines certain provisions, this new “stacking” proposal would almost certainly exacerbate this inappropriate exploitation of the 340B program. Further, due to the complexity of the biopharmaceutical supply chain, it can be essentially impossible to accurately track a single unit of a covered outpatient drug since manufacturers do not necessarily have access to the data that would be needed to determine whether any specific unit was subject to various discounts.

Finally, among other rules, the proposal would redefine vaccines as “a product that is administered prophylactically to induce active, antigen-specific immunity for the prevention of one or more specific infectious diseases and is included in a current or previous FDA published list of vaccines licensed for use in the United States.” This definition contradicts definitions used by other federal programs, which rely on the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which would include products like passive prophylactic products intended as prophylaxis for a range of infectious diseases.

BioNJ has engaged the full New Jersey congressional delegation to notify them of the negative ramifications that the implementation of these policies would have on the ability of life sciences companies to continue to innovate and how they would jeopardize the integrity of a variety of programs associated with the healthcare landscape.

Yesterday, BioNJ joined over 100 organizations across the nation’s life sciences ecosystem in signing a letter addressed to the majority and minority leaders of both chambers of the U.S. Legislature to emphasize the need for the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA) before the end of the calendar year in the same bipartisan fashion as it has been since its initial authorization 17 years ago. PAHPA is critical to the agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services and its funding organizations to ensure the nation is prepared for addressing national health security threats. The framework expired on September 30th of this year, and it has relied upon temporary extensions in the continuing resolution that will expire at the end of the week. BioNJ hopes to see this critical component of the nation’s national security infrastructure reauthorized in a manner that reflects the past 17 years of comprehensive, five-year reauthorizations in the next moving legislative vehicle.

To read the letter signed by BioNJ and our coalition partners, click here.

Earlier this month, the New York State Department of Financial Services withdrew a proposed regulation focused on the business practices of Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) despite having received substantial support during its comment period. These rules would have subjected PBMs to increased consumer protection provisions, prohibit deceptive marketing or business practices and prohibited PBMs from incentivizing covered individuals to use a pharmacy owned by or affiliated with the PBM itself or requiring covered individuals to purchase prescription drugs exclusively through a mail-order pharmacy. Additionally, these rules would have imposed a minimum dispensing fee of $10.18 on pharmacists for filled medication.

To read the Department’s proposed rules, click here.

To read coverage of the proposed rules in Lexology, click here.

Via its One Medical platform, Amazon Prime subscribers will have access to primary care services for $9 per month. One Medical will provide access to virtual care, expedited care for minor conditions like cold symptoms and same or next-day remote or in-person appointments at One Medical primary care offices.

To read coverage of this entrance of Amazon into primary care services in Forbes, click here.

BioNJ is the voice of New Jersey’s life sciences sector in Trenton and Washington. BioNJ’s Public Policy Support Series sponsorship opportunities are now available for 2024. Help ensure BioNJ continues to deliver our message of improved Patient access and enhanced innovation through a Public Policy Support Series Sponsorship.  

Click here for more information.

BioNJ | www.BioNJ.org