Cost Transparency Efforts Increase as Rx Drug Prices Rise
As the price of many prescription drugs grows in the U.S., drugmakers are coming under increasing pressure to reveal information about development costs and profits. Within the last year, cost transparency bills have been proposed in legislatures in at least six states, including California. Federal lawmakers also have taken aim at the issue. Last year, two members of the Senate Finance Committee called for detailed cost data from Gilead Sciences, which produces a blockbuster hepatitis C treatment that costs about $1,000 per pill.
- "Drug Prices Soar, Prompting Calls for Justification" (Pollack, New York Times, 7/23).