I know. UU They want drug prices in television ads: & # 039; Patients deserve to know & # 039;
I know. UU They want drug prices in television ads: & # 039; Patients deserve to know & # 039;
The federal government said on Monday it wants to force drug makers to disclose the prices of prescription drugs in their television ads.
The main commercial group of the pharmaceutical industry said that pharmaceutical companies are only willing to disclose prices on their websites, not in commercials, and will begin to do so next spring.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar He released a proposal that would apply to all brand name drugs covered by the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which is the majority of medications.
"Patients deserve to know what a given medication might cost when they are informed about the benefits and risks they may have," Azar said in prepared comments. "They deserve to know if the pharmaceutical company has raised its prices to abusive levels, and they deserve to know this every time they see a drug advertised on television."
Most Americans do not pay the full price of the prescriptions, one of the reasons why drug makers have opposed revealing list prices, arguing that it would only confuse the public. But insurance plans base their co-payments on the list price established by the drug manufacturers. And patients with plans with high deductibles or without insurance sometimes pay the full price.
President Trump has pledged to reduce drug prices for a long time, and in May, his administration launched a "project" with vague proposals to do so, including the exploration of list prices in television ads.
Hours before Azar's announcement, the pharmaceutical group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA, said its 33 member companies agreed to include in the ads a website that would give the list price of the drug, the range of likely costs Disbursement and Any financial assistance available. The group also plans its own website, where patients can search for medications by name and find similar information.
"We appreciate your effort," said Azar. "But putting information on a website is not the same as putting it in an ad."
PhRMA executive director Stephen J. Ubl and other members of the trade group said they believe that demanding list prices in the ads would violate the companies' First Amendment free-speech rights. But Azar, speaking at a conference of the National Academy of Medicine, said there is a precedent for such a move, noting that federal law requires auto manufacturers to disclose the prices of stickers.
Direct consumer advertising of drugs has been allowed in the United States for two decades. The ads should show the side effects, but not the prices.
Many details of the proposed rule have yet to be resolved, even if it should be expanded to cover radio, print or Internet ads. According to the proposal, television commercials would have to declare in a readable type the list price established by the manufacturer for all medicines that cost more than $ 35 per month or for a standard treatment, such as an antibiotic.
If the rule is adopted after a public comment period of 60 days, the department of Azar plans to disclose the names of drug manufacturers that do not comply and could take legal action against them.
In general, drug manufacturers can charge as much as the US market. UU Because the government does not regulate the prices of medicines, unlike most other developed countries.
List prices have been monitored for a long time, and those prices are the starting point for the price negotiations of drug manufacturers with intermediaries, such as insurance companies and prescription drug benefit managers.
According to the government, list prices for the top 10 prescription drugs advertised on television vary from $ 535 to $ 11,000 per month or per course of treatment.
Lyrica, Pfizer's highly publicized nerve pain medication, has a monthly list price of $ 669. Humira, AbbVie's treatment for immune system disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, has a list price of $ 4,872 per monthly injection . Both have almost doubled in four years.
Patient for Affordable Drugs, a foundation-funded advocacy group, called the PhRMA website election "a transparent attempt to anticipate full disclosure of list prices in ads," adding that he does not believe the disclosure of list prices reduce patient costs.
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Follow Linda A. Johnson at https://twitter.com/LindaJ-onPharma
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The Associated Press Department of Science and Health receives support from the Department of Science Education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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