Much has been written about the role Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) play in driving up the cost of prescription brand named drugs. However, far less has been written about how PBMs current business practices lead U.S. consumers, employers, and the government to pay too much for what should be low-cost drugs. Now a new paper, […]
Health
FDA’s Decision to Ban JUUL E-cigarettes Will Jeopardize American Lives
Today’s announcement by the FDA that JUUL’s vaping products will be ordered off the market is another stark reminder of the agency’s forgotten mission to protect the health of American consumers. The scientific evidence clearly shows that e-cigarettes and vaping products, while not totally safe, are 95% safer than combustible tobacco products and twice as […]
Menthol Bans Will Spell Financial Hit to State Coffers
Back in March, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it was planning “to prohibit menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes and prohibit all characterizing flavors (other than tobacco) in cigars.” The proposal is rooted in the agency’s desire to “significantly reduce disease and death from the use of combusted tobacco products, the leading […]
Policymakers Should Care about Reducing Health Risks
Every day thousands of smokers make a conscious decision to improve their health by dumping harmful combustible tobacco products and turning to electronic cigarettes and vaping products. Yet, despite this growing positive trend, federal regulators at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have taken increasingly aggressive regulatory steps to make it harder for smokers to […]
A Menthol Flavor Ban Would Have Unintended Consequences
Most Americans will have likely heard about the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) new plan to prohibit all menthol cigarettes and flavored cigar sales in the United States. The plan, which is already being described as the biggest cigarette crackdown since the 1960s, would effectively ban one of the most popular tobacco items on the […]
ACI Files Comments with the FDA Regarding a Proposed Tobacco Standard That Would Prohibit Menthol Products
Dear Sir or Madam, My name is Edward Longe, and I am a Policy Manager at the American Consumer Institute. The American Consumer Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-partisan, educational, and public policy research organization with the mission to identify, analyze, and project the interests of consumers in selected legislative and rulemaking proceedings. We share the […]
Coalition Letter in Opposition to TRIPS Proposal
Today, a group of 41 policy organizations submitted a letter to the World Trade Organization concerned about a proposal that would undermine intellectual property rights and benefit foreign rivals likeCommunist China. The proposal would waive IP protections for COVID-19 vaccines that exist underthe Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). You can read […]
Report Reveals 340B Program in Serious Need of Reform
A new report from the nonprofit public policy organization Pioneer Institute sheds new light on the recent failings of the Federal 340B Drug Discount Program. This 1992-era program was originally designed to provide “comprehensive services” to vulnerable populations by requiring that drug companies sell certain products to eligible healthcare clinics and hospitals at a 20-50% […]
Alaskan Legislators Should Reconsider Regressive Tax on Vape Products
In January, Alaska became the latest state in the Union to propose a tax on vape products when it introduced SB 45. The bill, and its counterpart HB 110, would make several changes to state tobacco policy by levying a 45% wholesale tax on electronic vape products. This new tax would not only make nicotine […]
Consumers Would Benefit from State Bans on Copay Adjustment Programs
Last month, the Ohio House Legislature voted unanimously 89-0 to end a controversial practice known as accumulator adjustment, or copay adjustment, that Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) and insurance companies use to restrict patient access to drug manufacturers provided copay coupons used to help meet their deductibles. Should the bill be approved by the Ohio Senate, […]