For the millions of Americans who suffer from genetic disorders and previously faced a lifetime of expensive and imperfect treatments, new cutting-edge gene therapies hold exceptional promise. However, our current health system is poorly equipped to make these lifesaving treatments broadly accessible to patients; that needs to change. Gene therapies, which were approved in the […]
Coalition Letter on Gene Replacement Therapy
Cell and gene therapies have the potential to save lives and can offset significant direct and indirect costs to our healthcare system, thus saving taxpayers money in the long run, according to this broad coalition letter.
Maryland Consumers Should Demand Transparency from PBMs
Consumers in Maryland are facing rapidly rising prices at the pharmacy counter, but drug makers’ prices have roughly kept pace with inflation over the last few years. What gives? It turns out that pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), a very small number of largely unregulated companies that administer the drug plans of more than 230 million […]
Center Maryland: Lawmakers in Annapolis Should Demand Greater Transparency from PBMs
If you’ve never heard of pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs), that’s the way they like it. While they administer drug plans for more than 230 million Americans, PBMs thrive on secrecy and a lack of transparency. Yet PBMs’ shady business practices deeply impact the lives of Marylanders by pushing up drug prices and limiting access to […]
Latest ConsumerGram: Lowering Drug Prices in Maryland Means Bringing Transparency to PBMs
Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) administer prescription drug plans for sponsors (e.g., employers and insurers), negotiate drug prices with manufacturers, and negotiate reimbursement terms with pharmacies. This ConsumerGram analyzes the structure, conduct and performance of the industry and finds that the lack of transparency in costs and prices leads to anticompetitive risks. The result can mean […]
Where in Health Might Amazon Fit?
Amazon earned the reputation of being a constructive force for consumers and a disrupter for the industries it chooses to enter. In the last few years, we have been watching Amazon’s tentative forays into selected health care niches. Amazon has avoided the clinical services side of health care, unlike CVS, which is transforming its retail […]
The Hill: Life-saving gene therapies are here — we need to get them to patients
For decades, scientists around the world have dreamed of medical interventions to repair or replace defective genes in a targeted way. Today, that vision is becoming reality for an ever-growing number of debilitating and deadly diseases thanks to breakthroughs in gene therapy technology. But if millions of Americans are to benefit from these advances, our […]
Regulatory Uncertainty and Industry Practices Force Consumers to Overpay on Biologics
Biopharmaceuticals are preparations synthesized from living organisms, especially a human or animal protein, such as a hormone or antitoxin that is used as a diagnostic, preventive, or therapeutic agent. If the preparation is the original drug, it can be patented. Most of us have seen TV adverts for patented new wonder drugs such as Humira, […]
Real Clear Health: Consumers Deserve More Transparency from High Drug Prices
As the new legislative session begins, Congress should demand increased transparency, require flow-through of manufacturer rebates to lower consumer prices, prohibit clawbacks, and consider giving federal agencies expanded oversight responsibilities to monitor PBMs’ practices. This op-ed explains why.
Novel Financing Approaches are Needed to Capitalize on Life-Saving Gene Therapies
Today, the American Consumer Institute Center for Citizen Research (ACI) announced the release of its latest ConsumerGram, highlighting the promise of new gene replacement therapies and urging health care stakeholders to develop innovative ways of financing these important treatments. The report, authored by Dr. Joseph Fuhr, Liam Sigaud and Steve Pociask, describes the economic benefits […]
