Is pharma industry too meek on pricing?

What were we thinking? The biopharmaceutical industry has been under attack for some time for the high and rising prices of its products. Pressure has increased recently with the arrival of costly medications for oncology, hepatitis, high cholesterol and more. Expect even further pressure as more specialty drugs are introduced, and then really significant pushback once seriously costly innovations such as gene therapy come online. I’ve noticed that the pool of people complaining about drug pricing is widening. Now, even doctors are picking up the megaphone. For example, the American College of Physicians (ACP) recently made the case for drug price controls in a position paper. Recommendations include requiring companies to disclose R&D and materials costs, allowing the use of Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) in research funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), having Medicare negotiate prices, enabling reimportation of drugs from lower-priced markets, ensuring that restrictive formularies don’t price patients out of the market by requiring excessive cost sharing, etc. For all its spending and glitz, the industry’s main lobbyist (PhRMA) hasn’t managed to stave off the attacks. In fact some of its past and current arguments are digging the industry into a deeper hole. Here’s what PhRMA said in response to a MedPage Today inquiry on the ACP position paper: In an email to MedPage Today, a spokesperson for...
Source: Health Business Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Pharma Policy and politics Source Type: blogs