Last night, Andy Slavitt, Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), addressed the annual Biopharma Congress in Washington, DC. His talk was titled "The Need to Partner on Drug Innovation, Access and Cost." In it, Slavitt addressed what he called "pervasive" cost increases, noting: "Despite all the attention it has generated this year, Mylan’s Epipen is not even on our top 20 list for either high price increases or spending overall in 2015." Rising public outcry and state-level budget crises have led to congressional hearings about the reasons behind spiraling prices; the issue has been especially prominent during the current presidential election. Slavitt cautioned conference attendees, the majority of whom work in the pharmaceutical industry, that he's no longer comfortable defending Big Pharma. He noted that in the past, "I didn’t want this industry to be defined by its worst actors. . . but the more data that’s revealed, the more bad actors you find, and I’m telling you now: it’s too many." What is to be done? According to Modern Healthcare, despite policy positions held by both major-party candidates, significant change is unlikely because of the power of the pharmaceutical industry and ideological divisions in the legislative branch.