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WASHINGTON – President Trump was on the cusp of proposing new measures to keep prescription drug prices after a government study found that Medicare was paying 80% more than other advanced industrialized nations for some the most expensive drugs administered by a doctor.
"The current international drug pricing system has put America in last place," said Alex Azar II, secretary of health and social services, on Thursday.
The government's latest move is nearing the end of the mid-term election campaigns in which Democrats sought political arguments by saying that Republicans would cancel protections for people with pre-existing health problems – most popular provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Democrats have also campaigned on the high cost of prescription drugs.
Trump was to quote the government's report in a speech on Thursday. The report compares the prices charged by drug manufacturers in the United States and in 16 other countries for 27 Medicare Part B drugs.
"Overall, prices and reimbursement rates for Part B drugs are significantly higher for US suppliers than for buyers outside the United States. Medicare could realize substantial savings if prices in the United States were similar to those of other major market economies. . "
In a publication on Twitter, said Mr. Azar"It was found that Medicare paid the highest price for 19 of the 27 drugs studied." In one case, Medicare paid less than the international average, he said.
Among the drugs included in the study include Aranesp, Avastin, Herceptin, Keytruda, Lucentis, Neulasta, Opdivo and Rituxan.
The report was remarkable for several reasons.
It uses foreign drug prices as a reference or benchmark for judging prices in the United States. In many foreign countries, officials negotiate prices with drug manufacturers. Republicans in this country have been opposed to such negotiations, fearing that Medicare will dictate prices or limit access to medications deemed too expensive.
Other countries "are using their national health systems to negotiate lower prices in exchange for market access," the Trump administration said in a report released on Thursday.
Many countries also consider the price of a drug in other countries when setting prices for their own citizens. Pharmaceutical companies and other critics do not like such "international reference prices". If they were adopted here, they would actually impose price controls on other countries' medicines in the US market.
Medicare usually pays 106% of the "average selling price" of drugs that patients receive by infusion or injection into doctors' offices. Medicare's drug spending has grown rapidly – at an average rate of about 9.5 percent per year since 2009, according to the Medicare Payments Advisory Board, an independent agency that advises Congress.
The Trump administration has stated that the current payment formula could financially incentivize some doctors and hospitals to use "the most clinically costly product."
The new report has recognized many "limitations" in the data used for its international price comparisons. The formulation of drugs, their dosage and their strength may differ from one country to another, he said.
The prices quoted in the study "may not reflect exactly the actual amount paid in the US or abroad" as they generally do not show the effects of discounts offered by drug manufacturers, says report .
Officials in the Obama administration have also been concerned about the rapid growth in Medicare Part B drug spending. In March 2016, they proposed a national experiment to reduce payments for many of these drugs. But they abandoned the plan nine months later after being criticized by pharmaceutical companies, doctors, patients and congressmen from both parties, who said it would jeopardize access to important drugs. .
About two-thirds of the Part B drug expenditure is for biotechnology-derived drugs, called biologics.
In addition to the United States, the countries included in the Trump administration drug price comparison are Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, the United States and the United States. Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United States. Kingdom.
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