San Francisco Voters To Consider A Ballot For Lowering Drug Prices

Next month, San Francisco voters will have a chance to approve a referendum that will allow residents to decide whether to require city officials to hold talks with drugmakers about pricing for ‘essential medicines.’ And to ensure that qualified voters are aware of the opportunity, a publicity campaign has begun this week featuring a television spot for ‘Prop D.’ The measure, which is known as the Prescription Drug Purchasing Initiative, is designed to increase patient access and was begun last summer by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in response to the prices for certain AIDS medications, specifically, Stribild, a once-daily combination HIV pill from Gilead Sciences (GILD) that was approved by the FDA last year and costs $28,500 annually. AHF targeted San Francisco for its referendum, since the city has a large population of people who are HIV infected and drug prices have a significant impact on its finances. This helps explain why the referendum, which was approved for the ballot last March (see this), has the backing of the city’s board of supervisors. Whether the initiative has its desired effect remains to be seen. As noted previously, talks may be held with drugmakers and subsequent public pressure may make pharma execs uncomfortable, but to what extent, if any, actual pricing will be affected is unclear.  Then again, the approach is certainly another way of raising public awareness and may force concessions that may otherwise have not existed. In any event,...
Source: Pharmalot - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs