FDA chief Gottlieb to pharma: Those rebates you love to hate may soon count as kickbacks

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., hasn’t been shy about allying with President Donald Trump on the subject of high drug prices. Even though pricing is not the FDA's purview, Gottlieb has vowed to do his part to bring down drug costs by speeding up approvals of generics, for example, and cracking down on companies that try to stifle generic competitors. But Gottlieb’s latest idea has raised some eyebrows in the pharma community because it attacks a fundamental strategy drug companies use to get their products on insurance formularies deep discounts in the form of rebates to pharmacy benefits managers.