Oregon: Transparency ’s Latest Frontier

On March 13, 2018, Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed a bill that requires drugmakers to report research and development and marketing costs, along with profits and more, for drugs that get price hikes of more than 10%. Companies will also be required to report whether generics are available. The Oregon bill (HB 4005) is the most recent state-level drug pricing transparency law that attempts to control the cost of prescription drugs and is quite similar to the California legislation that is the subject of a legal challenge. However, HB 4005 goes a step further than that California legislation and seems to require manufacturers to disclose confidential and competitively sensitive information. Under this law, manufacturers must report to the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services the research and development costs, advertising and marketing costs, profits for the drug, and whether generic drug alternatives are available, as well as what the drug costs in other countries for any drug with price increases of 10% or more. The first reports are due July 1, 2019 and would reflect any price increases that meet the target in the current calendar year. In addition, beginning on March 15, 2019, if a manufacturer introduces a new drug for sale in the U.S. at a price that exceeds the threshold for specialty drugs set in the Medicare Part D program ($670 in 2018), within 30 days of introducing the new drug for sale, the manufacturer must report: A description of the marke...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs