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The AHA today sent letters to the heads of U.S. operations for five large drug companies — Merck, Eli Lilly, Sanofi, Novartis and AstraZeneca — expressing “profound concern” over actions they are taking to limit the distribution of certain 340B drugs to hospitals and health systems and asking them to “cease this conduct immediately.”

These actions range from limiting the distribution of certain 340B drugs to demanding, on short notice, superfluous, detailed reporting on 340B drugs distributed through hospitals’ contract pharmacies.

AHA said that it “is an outrage that this action is being taken at a time when hospitals are in the midst of their response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, which has further demonstrated the fractured, inadequate state of the prescription drug supply chain,” and that the drug companies’ actions are “attempting to compel hospitals to divert critical resources away from the pandemic.” 

AHA urged the drug companies to stop this conduct and work to ensure that 340B drugs are available and accessible to vulnerable communities and populations.

“For a drug company to jeopardize hospitals’ ability to care for patients who are already under severe economic, emotional and health-related strain during a public health crisis is unconscionable,” AHA said.