Colorado just became the first state to cap the price of a prescription drug. What comes next is uncertain.

[Nittersing]

The Colorado Prescription Drug Affordability Board placed what is known as an upper payment limit on the drug Enbrel

"An obscure Colorado board took an unprecedented step last week in an attempt to control the prices that patients pay for their medicines.

The board, called the Prescription Drug Affordability Review Board, made Colorado the first state to set, effectively, a price cap on a prescription drug. The cap, known formally as an upper payment limit, puts a ceiling on how much a patient or insurer in Colorado will have to pay for the drug — in this case a drug called Enbrel that treats rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. It will start Jan. 1, 2027.

The vote was four years in the making, had already survived one legal challenge and represented a major victory for allies of Gov. Jared Polis’ approach to reducing health care costs through stronger regulation.

“This groundbreaking upper payment limit on Enbrel has the potential to save $32 million from drug spending,” Sophia Hennessy, the lead policy research coordinator for the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, said in a statement. “We’re thrilled with the board’s decision today that helps ensure more patients can afford their vital medications.”

But whether those promises will hold — whether patients will, in fact, save money or whether the relatively small number of Coloradans who take Enbrel will be able to continue to get it — is uncertain.

https://coloradosun.com/2025/10/07/prescription-drug-affordability-board-enbrel-upl/

The pharmaceutical world is a deeply complicated place. And it is filled with intricately intertwined and sometimes competing pieces: manufacturers and distributors and pharmacy benefit managers and insurers and pharmacies, each with their own business models and financial incentives.