J & J becomes the first drug manufacturer to add prizes to TV commercials

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson announced Thursday that it would begin adding the price of its drugs to television ads as early as next month, becoming the first drug maker to respond to the US president's call Donald Trump advocates for price transparency for drugs advertised directly to consumers.

The health conglomerate indicated that it would include both the price of a product – the price before any discounts or rebates to insurers or drug benefit managers – as well as any fees. at the expense of the patients.

The decision, announced in a statement on the J & J website, was quickly hailed by US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar. Last May, Azar's office released an action plan to reduce the cost of drugs, which included a proposal to require catalog price disclosure in TV commercials for drugs.

"We congratulate Johnson & Johnson for recognizing the utility of informing consumers of catalog prices and having done so voluntarily.We call on other manufacturers to follow their example," said Azar in a statement.

Trump has made reducing the cost of prescription drugs for American consumers a central issue of the 2016 presidential campaign and again stressed in his speech on the state of the Union this week .

Advertisements for blood diluent Xarelto, J & J's most prescribed drug, will be the first TV commercial to include price information, the company said. The treatment used to prevent blood clots costs between $ 450 and $ 540 per month.

Congress has stepped up its monitoring of drug prices in the United States since the Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in January, while the Republican-run Senate also lobbied.

Republican Senator Chuck Grbadley, chair of the Senate's finance committee, and Democratic senator Ron Wyden, a prominent member of the committee, invited leaders of seven pharmaceutical companies, including J & J, to testify at a hearing on Monday. on rising drug prices.

(Report by Julie Steenhuysen, edited by Bill Berkrot)