Perspectives On Drug Costs: A Radical Idea To Cut Prices — Make Drugmakers Explain Themselves
Editorial and opinion writers offer their takes on drug-cost issues.
Los Angeles Times:
A New Way To Cut Drug Prices? Make Big Pharma Show What It Spends To Bring Drugs To Market
At least 10 states are pondering a radical approach to putting a leash on soaring drug prices: force drug companies to explain how they arrived at the price of their costliest new drugs. The approach is radical not in the sense that it’s a new idea, but in the sense that it hasn’t been tried before. The idea is that the prices of some blockbuster new drugs—and some hard-to-get old drugs—are opaque. (Michael Hiltzik, 6/20)
The Fresno Bee:
Let’s Shed Some Light On The High Price Of Drugs
Senate Bill 1010, pending in the Assembly, would require drugmakers to give purchasers some notice and justification before they hike the price of big-ticket drugs on the market, and require health plans and insurers to identify which drugs are driving spending. It’s basic stuff, really, but drug companies are kicking and screaming. (6/20)
Los Angeles Times:
Cutting Through The Drug Manufacturers' Smokescreen On SB 1010
When the pharmaceutical industry feels threatened by lawmakers or regulators, it often plays what I call the “Miracle Cure card.” Here’s how that works. The industry trots out one or more gravely ill people whose lives have been prolonged or even saved by a drug the industry spent an enormous amount of money developing. Then it warns that the pipeline of such miraculous drugs will shut down if the industry is forced to do what lawmakers (or regulators) are proposing. (Jon Healey, 6/20)
The Sacramento Bee:
Bill Won’t Lower Drug Prices
Health care costs are on the minds of many Californians, who see their insurance premiums and out of pocket expenses rising. Unfortunately, as state legislators consider good-faith efforts to address the issue, one measure – Senate Bill 1010, which goes before the Assembly Health Committee on Tuesday – not only fails to protect affordability and access, it threatens to make matters worse. Proponents of SB 1010 say the purpose of the bill is to lower costs driven by drug prices. They point to the mythical “$1,000 pill” and specialty drugs as the problem and say it’s time to bring drug pricing out of the shadows. (Sara Radcliffe, 6/20)