President Joe Biden calls for lower prescription drug costs
pharmafile | August 13, 2021 | News story | Medical Communications |
President Joe Biden has called on congress to take steps to lower prescription drug costs.
This would also include allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices and impose penalties on pharma companies that hike prices faster than inflation.
This plan to reduce the cost of prescriptions is part of the President’s Build Back Better agenda.
On Thursday, Biden praised the companies involved in developing the vaccines for the COVID-19 pandemic.
He then said: “But we can make a distinction between developing these breakthroughs and jacking up prices on a range of medications for a range of everyday diseases and conditions.”
Biden also said US prescription drug costs were two or three times higher than in any other country.
Biden wants CMS to be able to negotiate for a subset of the highest-cost drugs that have no competitors, as reported in Reuters.
“We’re going to provide that competition through Medicare. Medicare is going to negotiate a fair price.”
“Drug companies would have to sell their drugs to all distributors at the Medicare price or face up to a 95 percent excise tax. The savings for employers and employees would be billions of dollars a year.”
However, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) called it a “misguided approach.”
US Chamber of Commerce Vice President Neil Bradley said in a statement on behalf of the business lobby group: “The price controls proposed by the Biden administration are nothing more than a tax on the research investments that have made break-throughs, like the COVID vaccines, possible.
“Price controls will result in less research investment and fewer U.S. jobs, leaving America unprepared for the next public health crisis and delaying the development of treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s, and many other diseases.”
Lilly Subbotin
