Provide transparency, fairness to drug pricing process
By Sherry Weinstein / For The Herald
The rising cost of prescription drugs has become a major burden for individuals and families across our country.
ICAN, International Cancer Advocacy Network, works every day with late-stage cancer patients to improve access to the anticancer drugs that they need in this era of personalized medicine. We know all too well that anticancer medications often have high costs. These costs tend to be highest in the last year of life, creating a serious barrier to access and affordability, and impacting quality of life.
One often-overlooked solution to lower costs for medications is to limit the influence of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in our health care system.
PBMs are middleman companies (often owned by insurance companies) with sole authority to negotiate drug prices and manage pharmacy access to therapeutics. Just three PBM companies control more than 80 percent of the market. This power can dramatically increase the cost of medications for patients at the pharmacy counter. Often, we see PBMs prioritize profits over patient care by engaging in opaque practices that can drive up out-of-pocket expenses, restrict patient access to affordable medications, and undermine the ability of independent pharmacies to provide service to communities.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-provide-transparency-fairness-to-drug-pricing-process/