Marathon Pharmaceuticals resigned from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, an influential drug lobby group, reports Kaiser Health News.
Here are five things to know.
1. Marathon CEO Jeffrey Aronin held a position on PhRMA's board.
2. The resignation comes after Marathon made headlines in February for the $89,000 price tag of its newly-approved Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug Emflaza. Marathon sold off the drug to PTC Therapeutics in March.
3. Marathon's departure also precedes PhRMA's efforts to review its membership criteria.
"[W]e want to represent companies that are really swinging for the fences … [companies] that are taking enormous risks in bringing breakthrough treatments to market," PhRMA President Stephen Ubl recently told KHN. "So we'll be looking at our membership criteria to really focus on those attributes."
4. Marathon is the second drugmaker to resign from the lobby group this month. Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals dropped out of PhRMA in early April, saying "the significant financial and time commitment required" for PhRMA membership did not justify the policy value, according to KHN.
5. PhRMA declined KHN's request for comment regarding the departure of the two drugmakers.
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