The harmful and anti-competitive business practices that PBMs thrive on are made possible by the industry’s secrecy and lack of transparency. Plan sponsors and beneficiaries should be given more information about how their insurance plans are managed and what rates are negotiated. Pharmacies should be allowed, and even encouraged, to point customers to lower-cost alternatives […]
Prescription Drugs That Your Insurer Objects to Paying For
Consumers have a love-hate relationship with prescription drugs. We love the wonderful new drugs that treat and sometimes cure conditions that were once life-threatening, but we hate the sometimes-unaffordable prices of the latest drugs. Consumers who have prescription insurance coverage are somewhat insulated from the full price of drugs, but insurers and pharmacy benefit managers […]
Can Drug Prices be Lowered?
Lowering the consumer price for a drug is in the public interest, provided that its sales margin recovers its development cost. Pharmaceuticals do not spontaneously emerge like weeds in a field. They are complex chemical or biological agents that are painstakingly designed and extensively tested for safety and efficacy. That said, there are steps worth […]
Amazon’s Next Step in the Pharmacy Industry
With the acquisition of PillPack, Amazon played another card in its high stakes contest of elbowing its way into retail pharmacy. Amazon has long been expected to make a move into the pharmacy space, and the 64,000 US retail pharmacies are not pleased to see Amazon sticking its big nose under their tent. Assuming that […]
Clawbacks — Another Source of Prescription Cost Overpayment
Brand and Generic drug prices show different pricing behaviors. In brand drugs, we see the effects of the 20 years of monopoly protection accorded to the first patent holder. However, the 20 years starts when the drug is invented, not when the FDA authorizes it for public use. Usually brand drugs are affordable despite noticeably […]
Lab Developed Tests Can Deliver Consumer Safety and Benefits
Laboratory Developed Tests (LDTs) have become a source of convenience and hope for patients, but they have also triggered controversy about the safety of their impact on consumer expectations, and about the accuracy of the clinical results they provide. In 2014, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services […]
Drug Supply Chain; Prices Too Costly
Consumer dissatisfaction with drug prices is not news, but it has not yet been addressed by competition or Congress. Consumers are elevating the issue to one of national importance, and the biopharmaceutical industry is beginning to pay attention, because they dread what is coming next – people from the government who are here to help. […]
Taxpayer and Consumer Coalition Objects to Impeding Generic Drug Competition
A coalition taxpayer and consumer groups sent a letter to Illinois House members explaining that H.B. 4900 — the Illinois Generic Drug Pricing Fairness Act — would seek to target generic drug pricing and impede generic competition, while leaving more expensive name brand drugs unaffected. While working families, small businesses, seniors, and especially society’s most […]
Organizations Call On Congress to Encourage Prescription Competition
A large group of organizations are calling on Congress to remove regulatory barriers in order to allow generic drug makers to have access to brand name drugs for FDA testing and approval. The bill would encourage competitive entry once brand name drug patents have expired, permitting new rivals to provide lower cost drugs to doctors […]
Some Misbehavior, but Some Inevitable
Most of us have an opinion on drug prices. Indeed, high drug prices were the top health care concern in 2016. The older generic drugs are usually priced in an affordable range, but a more lasting impression is made by a handful of drugs that were repriced by opportunist investors. Who does not recall the […]
