WASHINGTON, D.C. — The following statement was issued today by David Mitchell, a cancer patient and the founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now:
“The rules announced today by the Trump administration fall short of the comprehensive reforms we need to lower the prices of prescription drugs and provide relief all Americans need. They are a mixed bag at best.
“The most-favored nation international reference pricing rule endorses bringingprices of some drugs more in line with what other wealthy nations pay, which is a step in the right direction. But its impact is limited to a small number of Part B drugs, does not address Part D drugs, and would offer no relief whatsoever to the 85 percent of Americans not covered by Medicare. It is likely to be blocked by legal challenges, meaning any relief is a long way off.
“The rebate rule takes steps in the right direction by ridding our system of secret deals between drug companies and pharmacy benefit managers. Instead, negotiated discounts would be passed to patients and consumers at point of sale. But we are concerned that the rule does not adequately address the projected premium increases of $50 billion found previously by the CMS Office of the Actuary and the increased government spending of $177 billionover 10 years found by the Congressional Budget Office. This level of premium and cost impact would be unacceptable. Moreover the rule does nothing to lower list prices of drugs and provides no relief to the vast majority of Americans.
“We do note that the use of international reference pricing has now been endorsed by the outgoing Republican and incoming Democratic administrations and enjoys bipartisan support in Congress. We hope elected officials will seize on this momentum and enact legislation that will bring down the prices of prescription drugs in the United States.”
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