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The federal government announced Monday that it wants to force drug manufacturers to disclose the price of prescription drugs in their TV commercials.
The main occupational group in the pharmaceutical industry stated that pharmaceutical companies only wanted to disclose prices on their websites and not in advertisements. They will start doing that next spring.
Health and Social Services Secretary Alex Azar unveiled a proposal that would apply to all of the drugs originally covered by the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which make up most of the drugs.
"Patients deserve to know what a particular drug might cost when you explain to them the benefits and risks that it may have," Azar said in prepared remarks. "They deserve to know if the pharmaceutical company has pushed its prices to unreasonable levels, and they deserve to know it every time they see a drug being advertised on television."
Most Americans do not pay the full price of prescriptions – a reason drug manufacturers have opposed catalog price disclosure, arguing that it would only confuse the public. But insurance plans base their quotas on the list price set by the drug manufacturers. And patients with high-deductible or no-insurance plans sometimes pay a high price.
President Trump has long promised to lower drug prices, and in May his administration issued a "master plan" containing vague proposals, including price exploration in television commercials.
A few hours before Azar's announcement, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America trading group, called PhRMA, said that its 33 member companies had agreed to include in advertisements a website giving the current price of the drug, the cost range any available financial aid. The group is also planning to create its own website, where patients could search for drugs by name and find similar information.
"We appreciate their efforts," said Azar. "But placing information on a website is not the same as fixing it in an advertisement."
Stephen J. Ubl, CEO of PhRMA, and other members of the trade group said that imposing catalog prices on ads would violate First Amendment free expression rights. At a conference of the National Academy of Medicine, however, Azar said that such a decision was a priority, pointing out that the federal law requires manufacturers to disclose sticker prices.
Drug advertising directly to consumers has been allowed in the United States for two decades. Ads are needed to list side effects, but not prices.
Many details of the proposed rule have yet to be clarified, including the need to extend it to radio, print or Internet advertising. According to the proposal, television commercials should indicate in readable form the price displayed by the manufacturer for all drugs costing more than $ 35 per month or for standard treatment, such as an antibiotic.
If the rule is adopted after a 60-day public comment period, the Azar Department plans to publish the names of the non-compliant drug manufacturers that are likely to sue them.
Drug manufacturers can generally charge as much as the US market will bear, as the government does not regulate drug prices, unlike most other developed countries.
Catalog prices have long been closely monitored, and these prices are the starting point for price negotiations between drug manufacturers and intermediaries, such as insurance companies and prescription drug managers.
According to the government, current prices for the top 10 prescription drugs on television range from $ 535 to $ 11,000 per month or per treatment.
Lyrica, the neuralgic pain medication announced by Pfizer, has a monthly list price of $ 669. Humira, AbbVie's treatment of immune system disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, is priced at $ 4,872 per monthly injection. Both have almost doubled in four years.
Patients for Affordable Drugs, a foundation-founded advocacy group, has described PhRMA's website's choice of "seamless attempt to prevent full disclosure of catalog prices in ads," adding that it does not did not think that catalog price disclosure would reduce the costs borne by patients.
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Follow Linda A. Johnson at https://twitter.com/LindaJ-onPharma.
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The Health and Science Department of the Associated Press receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Scientific Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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