Drug industry lawsuit shows it wants to keep patients in dark on pricing
By David Lazarus. December 15, 2017. Los Angeles Times
Excerpts. Read complete article here.
The drug industry really, really doesn’t want you to know that it’s ripping you off with frequent and questionable price increases for prescription meds.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry’s main lobbying group, filed a lawsuit the other day seeking to derail a California law that will require 60 days’ notice before drugmakers raise prices beyond a certain threshold. The law, SB 17, is set to take effect Jan. 1.
In their suit, which names Gov. Jerry Brown as a defendant, drug companies argue that the state is attempting to dictate national healthcare policy and is unfairly picking on a single industry when other businesses share responsibility for high prices.
. . .
“What does the pharmaceutical industry have against transparency?” asked Richard Scheffler, director of UC Berkeley’s Global Center for Health Economics and Policy Research.
He told me the lawsuit is likely a warning shot — a declaration that the industry will bury California in legal filings if the state even thinks about acting more aggressively, such as having public and private drug purchasers band together to collectively bargain with manufacturers.
“They see that coming,” Scheffler said. “They’re doing everything they can to stop it.”
SB 17 doesn’t go anywhere near that far. It says only that pharmaceutical companies have to notify the state and health insurers if they plan to raise the price of a medication by 16% or more over a two-year period. The companies also would have to explain why such a large increase is needed.
. . .
SB 17 isn’t some mean-spirited attempt to kick sand in the picnics of kindly drug companies. It grew out of public outrage resulting from over-the-top price hikes, such as the maker of EpiPens jacking up the price of its widely used injectors to nearly $500 from about $60 .
And don’t forget the AIDS drug Daraprim, which saw its price soar overnight to $750 from $13.50 a pill. Or the Hepatitis C treatment Sovaldi, which cost $1,000 a pill because, well, why not?
As Brown said at the bill signing: “There’s a real evil when so many people are suffering so much from rising drug profits.”
. . .
SB 17 doesn’t tell them they have to cut prices. It simply casts sunlight on deliberately opaque practices, introducing a modest measure of accountability.
I find that the rising costs for my medications is soon going to be more then I can pay.. I am on medicare and a prescription and a supplement plan. I get about 1200 in social security, my rent is 785, my medicare and supplements cost about 300. that leaves no wiggle room
please do not raise medicine prices I reall need mine and many others are just as bad off