AMA, AHA Call For Drug Pricing Transparency, Increased Competition

DATE: September 27, 2017

Published by Inside Health Policy

Representatives from the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association called for increased drug pricing transparency and reduced regulations to increase competition at a panel on Monday (Sept. 25) on the cost of drugs at America’s Health Insurance Plans’ Medicare conference.

AMA Senior Vice President for Advocacy Richard Deem said that not much will change when it comes to rising costs until the industry achieves transparency in drug pricing.

“Physicians should be subject to transparency in terms to prices in health care, as should hospitals, as should PBMs as should pharmaceutical companies. Because right now it’s really hard. You can’t make good policy unless you have good data,” Deem said.

AHA Senior Vice President for Public Policy Ashley Thompson added that in order for there to be more transparency in drug pricing, more disclosure requirements should be tied to drug pricing and research and development when companies apply for drug approval.

Thompson also called for more competition and innovation. She said that AHA supports fast-tracking generic applications when no generic competition exists, incentivizing generic manufacturers with fast-track rewards, deeming pay-for-delay tactics to be presumptively illegal and increasing oversight of such agreements, and limiting the orphan drug incentive to true orphan drugs.

Deem expressed concern about laws and regulations used to stifle competition, such as use of the patent process or risk evaluation and mitigation strategies. AMA has called for an end to patent evergreening and recommended policy requiring a modest change in the product in order to extend the patent. He also said that the AMA wants FDA to minimize barriers for new products.

“We’ve got to continue to work together in this process. Health costs are a problem for the entire sector,” Deem said. “I think that those of us, whether it’s health plans, hospitals, physicians, drug-device manufacturers, we need to step up to the plate and own our part in the cost increase.” — Ariel Cohen

Click here to see the original article on the Inside Health Policy website.