The Week in Review in Prescription Drug Pricing

We have all the drug pricing news that’s fit to summarize. Welcome to the Week in Review in prescription drug pricing!
 
1. Almost Isn’t Good Enough

• In an effort to reduce the public scrutiny around exorbitant insulin prices, Eli Lilly has began sales of its “half-priced” generic version of Humalog. It’s still not enough. — (CBS News)

2. Too. Much.

• Novartis is charging more than $2 million for a gene therapy it can’t take full credit for.  — (CNN)

 3. Taken Hostage

• Hackers aren’t the only hostage-takers in Baltimore. The self-insured city had filed an antitrust suit against a Johnson&Johnson subsidiary, accusing the drug maker of thwarting generic competition for an expensive cancer drug. — (The Baltimore Sun)

 4. First in the Nation

• Spunky Maryland’s new drug pricing affordability board will be enacted July 1. We expect more reforms to come from states this year. — (AP)

 5. It’s Personal

• P4AD founder David Mitchell spoke with Houston Public Media about the importance of addressing the rising costs of prescription drugs. — (Houston Public Media)

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — In response to news that Maryland’s law to create the nation’s first prescription drug affordability board will go into effect on July 1, 2019, Patients For Affordable Drugs Now Executive Director Ben Wakana issued the following statement:
 
“This is a huge victory for Maryland patients and taxpayers. We are asserting the power of citizens to push back against the abusive monopoly pricing of drug corporations, and this new law is a step toward the day when all taxpayers and patients can use their purchasing power to demand fair prices for the prescription drugs we need.”
 
BACKGROUND

• Gov. Larry Hogan announced today that he would neither veto nor sign the measure, meaning it will become law on July 1. 
• The Maryland legislature created the Prescription Drug Affordability Board on bipartisan votes. The bill would:
  • Create a five-member board to review new brand-name prescription drugs that enter the market at $30,000 or more per year or course of treatment.
  • Review existing brand name medications that increase in price by $3,000 or more per year.
  • Authorize the board, with the approval of the legislative policy committee, to establish maximum costs to be paid by state and local governments for certain high-cost medications.
• Patients For Affordable Drugs Now endorsed the legislation and ran an aggressive campaign to support the bill, including digital ads that gave thousands of state residents the tools to support its passage. The five-figure P4ADNow effort supported state partners, including AARP Maryland, NAACP, MedChi, and the Maryland Health Care For All Coalition.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A groundbreaking bill to lower prescription drug prices will move to the full Assembly floor. Assembly Bill 824 would stop Big Pharma from cutting deals that block less-expensive generic drugs for state residents — a tactic that limits patient choice and costs taxpayers billions each year.

AB 824 would:

• Target a practice called “pay-for-delay,” in which brand drug corporations pay generic drug makers to delay the marketing and release of cheaper generic prescription drugs.
• Make “pay-for-delay” deals illegal and provide the California Department of Justice a path to more easily investigate them.
• Place the burden of proof on drug companies to prove to the California Attorney General’s Office that deals aren’t anticompetitive.

“California residents have been speaking out in support of the state’s effort to stop Big Pharma from cutting anti-competitive deals that keep drug prices high,” said Juliana Keeping, Communications Director for Patients For Affordable Drugs Now. “Thanks to a dirty tactic called ‘pay-for-delay,’ drug corporations are allowed to pay off generic competitors in an effort to maintain their monopoly and increase prices for patients. California patients have had enough and are sending a simple message: Drugs don’t work if people can’t afford them.”
 
Here’s what California patients speaking out about the need to lower drug prices have to say:

Dorothy Nerli, Willows, CA: “I find I am faced with increased costs, like the time my Spiriva went up to $129. Spiriva helps to clear my airways, clearing out my lungs in order to make my breathing easier. I have scar tissue in my lungs due to several bouts of pneumonia. This is a horrible case of greed on the part of the manufacturers, who should lower the price of these medications. It shouldn’t cost seniors their rent or a healthy diet in order to be able to breathe.”

Elizabeth Reinboldi, Vacaville, CA: “If I weren’t able to get my medication, it would be a great detriment to my quality of life. I love to be involved with my church and volunteer as much as possible. I wouldn’t be able to do these things if I couldn’t get my medicine, or if the price goes up at all. I simply wouldn’t be able to walk due to the pain. We need lower drug prices as soon as possible.”
 
Sharon Fisher, Rio Vista, CA: “Because of the high price, my doctor put me on a cheaper drug: Tramadol. It does not work as well as the Lidocaine. I don’t get to do any of the activities that I used to love. I miss going to the gym and leading an active lifestyle, but my pain is simply too severe. Too many seniors have to go without medicine due to high out of pocket costs. Something needs to change –– and soon.”
 
Patients For Affordable Drugs Now is a Washington, DC-based patient advocacy organization that takes no money from the pharmaceutical industry or any other player in health care. As part of its ongoing campaign in support of the California legislation, Patients For Affordable Drugs Now:

• Launched a 5-figure campaign to advance the bill  
• Gave Californians digital tools to write hundreds of letters in support of AB 824

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Former CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt summed up the insulin crisis in eight numbers:
 
3
6
21
39
275
4,000 – 6,000
30 million
 
Read it all here, and welcome to the Week in Review in prescription drug pricing!
 
1. The Price is Not Right

• A coalition of attorneys general from more than 40 states is suing generic drug makers for price collusion in one of the biggest alleged industry-wide price fixing schemes in U.S history. — (CBS 60 Minutes)

2. #GlaxoSmithLies

• GlaxoSmithKline has relied on a handful of abusive tactics to keep profit margins high while raising prices. In return, patients with asthma who need blockbusters like Advair are in dire straits. —  (Patients For Affordable Drugs)

3. You Get a Yacht!

• Health care CEOs made $2.6 billion last year. The highest salary went to a pharma executive. — (Axios)

4. All the Excuses

• Research and development is often the go-to defense when pharma is questioned on mile-high prices, but  a new study says it is nothing but spin. — (The Fiscal Times)

5. It Has to End

• We need legislation to stop deals for delay and patent thickets, AbbVie’s monopolistic bread and butter. — (STAT)

This week the world welcomed a royal baby! However, unless your name is Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, you’ll probably still have to worry about the high cost of prescription drugs.

Welcome to the week in review in prescription drug pricing!

1. “It’ll be a big fight”

• Novartis is gearing up to release a gene therapy that could save children living with the most severe type of Spinal Muscular Atrophy. But at $2 million for a course of therapy, parents aren’t sure their children will ever receive it. — (The Wall Street Journal)

2. Sky high in July

• A finalized rule from HHS will require that drug companies include the list price of drugs in ads. It goes into effect July 9. — (TIME)

3. Reference this

• A groundbreaking study from Johns Hopkins University shows how International Reference Pricing could save the government and patients BILLIONS! — (Health Affairs)

4. Patently absurd

• Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary hearing on drug company patent abuses included P4AD’s very own David Mitchell, who discussed the human impact of Big Pharma’s abusive patent games. — (Kaiser Health News)

5. Robber barons would blush

• Senators John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, and Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, proposed legislation this week to stop drug companies’ abusive patent tactics that block competition and crush taxpayers and patients. — (Bloomberg)

 
We would be remiss if we did not note the passing of one of the deans of health journalism, The New York Times’ Robert Pear. We will miss his kind spirit, tenacious reporting, and brilliant mind.
 
Robert, Thank You.

HARRISBURG, Pa. — As Pennsylvania state lawmakers weigh key measures to protect residents from Big Pharma’s skyrocketing drug prices, patients are calling for reform. One bill would require more transparency from drug manufacturers, triggered by price increases that hit certain thresholds. A second measure would establish a Prescription Drug Pricing Task Force to study the issue of rising drug prices and recommend legislative solutions.
 
HB 568 would:

• Require drugmakers report to the state insurance department research and development costs, marketing and advertising spending, a history of price increases, and other information when drug prices hit certain thresholds.

HB 1042 would:

• Create a task force designated to study prescription drug prices in the state of Pennsylvania.
• Require the task force issue a report within one year that includes suggested legislative remedies to make prescription drugs more affordable.

“Pennsylvanians are desperate for relief from crushing drug prices,” said David Mitchell, a cancer patient and the founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now. “While there is still work to be done to lower the list prices of drugs, these important bills could give state residents more information about rising costs and reasonable solutions to assuage unrelenting price increases.”
 
Today, Patients For Affordable Drugs Now published a series of patient stories on its website to underscore the urgency of the drug pricing crisis in Pennsylvania. 

Melissa Evans, Wilkes-Barre, PA: “Affording all of the medications I need to survive has become such a burden. I have to make many difficult decisions to make sure my needs are met. Half of the time I don’t even take my prescriptions because the co-pays are just far too high. I don’t fill it if I can’t afford it –– it’s as simple as that.”
 
Michelle Rzeplinski, McAdoo, PA: “These drug prices are killing me, both in the physical and the financial sense. If my drugs were more affordable, my health would greatly improve. Lower prices would mean better access to the medications that are prescribed to me.”
 
Lynn Seabrook, Wilkes-Barre, PA: “It is sad to say, but I sometimes feel like I would be better off dead –– especially at the end of the month, after prescriptions have been purchased and we are completely broke. My husband has not had a new pair of shoes in years, and I worry about the burden my drug costs places on my family.”
 
BACKGROUND:

• Americans pay anywhere from two to six times more than the rest of the world for brand-name prescription drugs.
• According to one report, the retail price of a vial of insulin in the U.S. is over $300. In Canada, the same vial costs $32.
• From 2011 to 2016, prescription drug spending in the U.S. grew by 28 percent, which was more than 2.5 times inflation during that time period.
• Forty two percent of cancer patients deplete their entire net worth in the first two years of treatment, in part because of high drug pricing.
• Drug spending growth will accelerate by 31 percent by 2023. 

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — In light of today’s news that Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced a groundbreaking bipartisan bill that would outlaw two tactics Big Pharma wields to maintain monopoly pricing power, David Mitchell, a cancer patient and the founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, issued the following statement:
 
“Drug corporations have run amok — abusing our patent system and leaving Americans bankrupt and sick. Two egregious tactics they use to maintain high prices are patent thickets and product hopping. Drug companies file scores of patents in an effort to thwart generic competition, or they bring a new drug to market with small, inconsequential differences in order to prevent a competitor from entering at a lower price. These tactics block free-market competition and keep drug prices high.
 
“We wholeheartedly endorse the Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act, and we applaud the work of Senators Cornyn and Blumenthal. This bill will speed generic drugs to market without hurting innovation.
 
“Momentum is building as Republicans and Democrats collaborate to fix our broken system. We look forward to working in support of this legislation, and we hope today’s bill will be included in any upcoming package of reforms.”
 
BACKGROUND:

• Patent thickets: Brand drug companies often file dozens of new patents on old drugs in order to force a generic company to file suit against each of them, delaying a generic competitor from coming to market. Between 2005 and 2015, at least 74 percent of the new drug patents issued were for existing drugs already on the market. The world’s top-selling drug, Humira, raked in $19.9 billion in sales last year — that’s more revenue last year than every NFL team combined.
  • AbbVie secured 132 patents on Humira.
  • Those patents are currently blocking a competitor in the U.S. until 2023, which represents a 21-year monopoly for the drug first approved in 2002.
  • AbbVie doubled the price from about $19,000 per year to $38,000 per year for patients in the U.S.
  • In response to cheaper competition, the company cut the price in Europe by 80 percent for the exact same drug and is still not losing money.
• Product Hopping: Product hopping occurs when a brand name drug manufacturer transfers patients taking its medications from one of its drugs to another drug with small, inconsequential differences in order to extend its patent life and market exclusivity.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patients For Affordable Drugs founder David Mitchell will tell his story of living with incurable blood cancer and will debunk Big Pharma’s claim that patients won’t get innovative drugs without paying high prices at a 10:00 AM hearing today on rising drug prices.
 
Read his full testimony here.
 
Mitchell’s testimony will highlight stories of patients skipping doses and going into debt to afford rising prescription drug prices. And he’ll focus on the fact that right now, nearly 1 in 3 adults report not taking their medicines as prescribed because of the cost. He’ll also discuss three legislative solutions to fix our broken system:

• Reforming our patent laws
• Ending the days of monopoly pricing power without taxpayer negotiations
• Forcing transparency from drug middlemen. 

Key Points From Mitchell’s Testimony:

• “Why do drug companies charge so much? Because they can. Yes, drug companies should profit when they develop innovative drugs. But we are way out of balance, and it’s costing us all—in our family finances, health outcomes, and lives.”
• “We heard from one patient who has sold her furniture, maxed out credit cards, and is skipping doses to afford Revlimid.”
• “Pharma wants us to ask this question: ‘What are we willing to pay to save a life?’ And that’s easy. When it’s your child’s lungs on the line, when it’s your wife’s diabetes, your husband’s cancer, the answer is ‘anything.’ But that’s the wrong question. We should be asking: ‘What is the right amount of money that drug companies should make on these drugs?’”

Patients For Affordable Drugs is a national patient organization focused exclusively on policies to lower prescription drug prices. We amplify the voices of Americans struggling under crushing drug prices to make policymakers and elected officials see the heavy toll of high-priced drugs. Patients For Affordable Drugs does not accept contributions from any organizations that profit from the development or distribution of prescription drugs.

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