Patients Score Victory in Minnesota as Governor Signs Drug Pricing Transparency Bill
SAINT PAUL, M.N. – In response to the news that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed into law a bipartisan bill that requires drug companies to justify price hikes, Ben Wakana, the executive director of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, issued the following statement:
“Drug corporations have been raising prices with no reason for years now, and their price gouging must stop. As the country grapples with COVID-19 and its worsening economic repercussions, it is imperative that policymakers and hardworking Minnesotans have a window into the pharmaceutical industry’s drug pricing decisions. We applaud Minnesota lawmakers and Governor Walz for passing legislation that will hold Big Pharma accountable for setting high prices.”
BACKGROUND:
The Prescription Drug Price Transparency Act (SF 1098) requires drug makers whose products hit certain price increase thresholds to provide advanced notice and justification of the increases to the Commissioner of Health. Manufacturer reporting on the drugs — which includes information on manufacturing costs, marketing, and sales — will be published publicly by the Minnesota Department of Health.
Patient Action: This spring patients across Minnesota have written to their state legislators urging them to pass legislation that will address the skyrocketing prices of their prescription drugs.
Minnesota Momentum: The bill’s passage follows the enactment in April of the Alec Smith Emergency Insulin Act, which creates a free 30-day supply of insulin for people with diabetes who can’t afford it. Alec Smith, a restaurant manager from Minneapolis, died at 26 of ketoacidosis after rationing his insulin, and his parents campaigned in the intervening years for drug pricing reform.
Patients For Affordable Drugs Now is a bipartisan 501(c)(4) national patient organization focused exclusively on policies to lower drug prices. To maintain its independence, the group does not accept donations from organizations that profit from the development or distribution of prescription drugs. In support of The Prescription Drug Price Transparency Act, the organization gave Minnesota patients tools to contact their representatives to encourage passage.
We’re not sure if X Æ A-12 is the name of a child or a new prescription drug, but we can tell you the latest in this week’s drug pricing news. Welcome to the Week in Review!
1. Pharma Sees Dollar Signs Ahead
Gilead Sciences, maker of the experimental COVID-19 drug remdesivir, spent a company record-setting $2.45 million lobbying Washington in the first quarter of the year. As the lobbying money flowed, a provision in Congress’ COVID relief bill that required taxpayer-funded drugs to be affordable hit the cutting room floor. Coincidence? We think not. — (NPR)
2. Pandemic Price Hike: Called Out
Two House representatives called out drug company Jaguar Health this week after it hiked the price of the anti-diarrheal drug Mytesi by 220 percent. Jaguar Health had been seeking government approval for Mytesi to be prescribed for COVID-19 patients. Hmmmm. — (Reuters)
3. People Before Profit
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) announced that a fair list price for remdesivir could be as high as $4,500 per patient, which could result in billions of dollars in profit for Gilead Sciences from a publicly funded drug. Any pricing strategy for remdesivir must be transparent to taxpayers and ensure the drug is affordable for everyone. — (Business Insider)
4. It All Adds Up
Rheumatoid arthritis patients have been slammed with steady price increases for biologic medications, resulting in fewer savings for patients from the closure of the Medicare donut hole than anticipated, a new analysis found. Researchers from Vanderbilt University are calling for out-of-pocket maximums and limits on yearly cost increases to help patients afford their prescription drugs. We couldn’t agree more. — (Vanderbilt University Medical Center)
5. Be on the ? Out For COVID-19 Vaccine Monopolies
Public funds are the backbone of pharmaceutical research – especially when it comes to vaccines and treatments for COVID-19. As taxpayers, we must remain vigilant and demand these products come to market at an affordable price for all patients. — (Business Insider)
Just Amash up of this week’s drug pricing news! Welcome to the Week In Review.
1. Memo to Pharma: A Pandemic is NOT a Pay Day
Patients For Affordable Drugs scrutinized Johnson & Johnson’s promise to offer a “not-for-profit” COVID-19 vaccine and found that offer to be more than a little misleading. P4AD will continue to hold pharmaceutical corporations to account as the pandemic — and vaccines and treatments to curtail it – unfold. – (P4AD)
2. The People Want Drug Pricing Reform
A recent poll found that nearly two-thirds of adults in the U.S. have reported increases in the costs of prescription drugs since 2017, and one-third of U.S. adults consider a candidate’s position on lowering drug costs a top issue at the ballot box. As members of Congress work to navigate COVID-19, they would be well advised to keep pushing for federal drug pricing reforms. — (Gallup)
3. Minnesota Momentum
After an April victory for insulin affordability for Minnesotans, state lawmakers moved forward a separate bipartisan drug pricing plan that would require increased transparency measures to prevent unjustifiable price hikes. — (St. James Plaindealer)
4. Priced too High
The new cystic fibrosis drug Trikafta is a game-changer for patients with the life-shortening genetic disease. However, drug pricing watchdog ICER found the monopoly drugmaker, Vertex, gave the medication an unfair price tag that burdens patients and families with millions of dollars in lifetime costs. Drugs don’t work if people can’t afford them. — (STAT & ICER)
5. Let’s Stay the Course and Lower Drug Prices
We all want a vaccine to protect us from COVID-19. But we can’t lose sight of the fact that, in the midst of this pandemic, existing drugs will make up our first line of defense against the novel coronavirus. It’s one of numerous reasons we *must* prioritize lowering drug prices. — (Medpage Today)
1. Decades of disinterest
A pot of government gold – and the prospect for no-strings-attached profits – is fueling pharma’s interest in vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 after *decades* of disinterest in treating infectious disease. Read the second blog in our series on taxpayer funding for COVID-19 vaccine and treatment development. — (P4AD)
2. ? Cries for reform will grow louder ?
The old way Big Pharma conducts itself isn’t going to fly in our new pandemic paradigm. The public is watching, and if pharma hoards intellectual property and profits at the expense of public health, ensuing cries for reform will be deafening. — (Bloomberg Law)
3. Pandemic price gouging
A drug maker tripled the price of a pill as it pursued the medication’s use for coronavirus patients – and it’s not an isolated instance. Pharma, we’ve got our ? on you. — (Axios)
4. Follow the money
The author of “PHARMA: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America,” discusses how drug industry lobbyists successfully blocked proposed measures in the recent $8.3 billion COVID-19 relief package that would have allowed the government to ensure fair prices for COVID-19 drugs. If pharma’s recent, and distant, sordid past has taught us anything, it’s that we can expect more of this. — (The Hill)
5. Without lower drug prices, expect more stories like this
A Kansas dad of four and aircraft mechanic was laid off just before the coronavirus struck and is about to lose his health insurance. He fears he’ll be forced to choose between feeding his children and buying his insulin. No one should have to make that choice. — (CBS)
I am a multiple sclerosis patient. I can’t smile because I can’t afford Lyrica. Lyrica is a medication that treats nerve pain, and it would help with the stinging in my mouth and the effect the nerve pain has had on my taste buds. The cheapest I could find this medication was $240, but depending on my coverage, it would sometimes be $400. Before my divorce, my husband’s insurance would help me pay for it. It really improved my health and made me feel so much better. But now I only have Medicare, and they just don’t cover Lyrica — so I simply can’t afford it.
As a small business owner with a high-deductible insurance plan, my family has paid as much as $700 per month for the insulin my daughter needs to stay alive. In contrast, I’ve bought exactly the same insulin in six other countries at 10 percent or less of the price. And in most countries, I didn’t even need a prescription! Why do Americans have to pay so much more for exactly the same drugs? I’ve been using my voice to raise attention to this issue to make sure that insulin, and all prescription drugs, are affordable and accessible to all who need them.
I was diagnosed with acid reflux in 1997. In addition to that, I also suffer from high cholesterol. I have been on Nexium for a number of years for my acid reflux, but I recently found out that my insurance company won’t cover it anymore. I thought it would be no problem and I could just pay for it myself because some years ago, it was $126 a month without insurance. I was surprised to find it is now $700 a month. Nexium is the only thing that controls my symptoms, but I can’t afford the $700 price tag. And Nexium is not the only medication I have had trouble affording. My doctor prescribed me Repatha for high cholesterol, and there was no option but to go without it due to the price.
I am a lupus patient. I am on a number of expensive medications that vary depending on what my doctor feels is the best to use at any given time. Some of the more expensive ones I’ve taken include Xeljanz, Rituxan, and an extended release version of prednisone called Rayos. High drug prices have made it so my doctors have to completely change the plan of action, more often than not. When I was on my commercial insurance plan through work, the copays were so high I had to choose which medications were most important to take. Going without medications or substituting a different one has negatively affected my whole life. I’m sicker and far less functional than I would be if I had affordable access to the proper medications.
