Washington, D.C. (April 25, 2016) – The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) issued the following statement today regarding the Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing’s policy proposals on prescription drug prices:
“These proposed policies are far from being ‘market-based,’ and would result in intrusive government intervention and regulation of the competitive market for prescription therapies. They also would drive costs up by creating burdensome new bureaucratic requirements.
“As is becoming typical to this coalition, these proposals would do nothing to address the real barriers that patients face in accessing innovative medicines: high cost sharing burdens and discriminatory formulary designs imposed by health insurance companies. Evidence continues to mount that some health insurance plans deliberately discriminate against patients with certain high-cost conditions such as HIV and hepatitis C. A recent Avalere report found that some insurance plans are still placing all medicines for some conditions on the highest cost-sharing tier, despite warnings from CMS that the practice may be discriminatory.
“Meanwhile, a recent IMS report showed that net price growth for branded medicines in 2015 was just 2.8 percent, due to increased discounts and rebates provided by drug manufacturers as part of competitive negotiations with powerful payers. By contrast, the real drivers of patient costs for drugs and insurance come from the very members of CSRxP’s coalition.
“If CSRxP truly wishes to help patients it ought to be calling for transparency for consumers choosing a health insurance plan. Patients would greatly benefit from information about each plan’s percentage of coverage denials and appeals success rate as well as up-to-date and accurate formulary information and provider directories.
“Any balanced discussion of health care costs must look at the health care system as a whole, including those industries responsible for nearly 90 percent of all health care spending – industries in which, unlike biopharmaceuticals, there is no generic competition to drive down costs over time.”
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About BIO
BIO is the world's largest trade association representing biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products. BIO also produces the BIO International Convention, the world’s largest gathering of the biotechnology industry, along with industry-leading investor and partnering meetings held around the world. BIOtechNOW is BIO's blog chronicling “innovations transforming our world” and the BIO Newsletter is the organization’s bi-weekly email newsletter. Subscribe to the BIO Newsletter.