The Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing (CSRxP) is pleased to announce that Allison Schneider has joined as communications director. Allison will lead the Campaign’s communications efforts both inside the beltway in Washington, D.C. and with state and local media throughout the country.
Recent treatments for hepatitis C, cancer and multiple sclerosis that cost from $50,000 annually to well over $100,000 helped drive up total U.S. prescription-drug spending 12.2% in 2014, five times the prior year’s growth rate, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. High drug prices can translate to patient costs of thousands of dollars a year. Out-of-pocket prescription-drug costs rose 2.7% in 2014, according to CMS.
Of all the health care issues that loomed large this past year, none was more controversial — and compelling — than pharmaceutical pricing. Wall Street may have cheered the added revenue, but pricing strategies were increasingly under attack. Poll after poll found most Americans believe prices are too high. And more lawmakers — and presidential candidates — are listening.
This afternoon, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services took an important step in the drug pricing conversation by introducing a tool that will increase transparency. To develop realistic market-based solutions to unsustainable drug prices requires that everyone focus on value and transparency in drug pricing, and this latest effort from CMS is a positive step.”
Prime Therapeutics LLC (Prime), an independent pharmacy benefit manager overseeing pharmacy benefits for health plans, employers, and government programs including Medicare and Medicaid, recently joined the Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing (CSRxP). The coalition is a broad-based organization committed to raising awareness about high drug prices and advancing positive, market-oriented solutions to the affordability crisis caused by escalating drug prices.
Drug pricing has been a hot topic in 2015 — and what a year it has been! As the year winds down, we wanted to revisit a few notable news items that helped shape and drive the conversation. Check out our Top Picks below. 1. Drug Goes From $13.50 a Tablet to $750 Overnight After acquiring Daraprim, a […]
“For a breakthrough medication to be effective, it needs to be affordable, yet drug makers fail time and time again to abide by this fundamental principle. The Campaign commends the Senate Special Committee on Aging for challenging the pharmaceutical industry on the irresponsible pricing strategies that deliberately deny patients and consumers access to affordable treatments.”
Pfizer’s multistep pricing process shows drugmakers don’t just pick a lofty figure out of the air. At the same time, its process yielded a price that bore little relation to the drug industry’s oft-cited justification for its prices, the cost of research and development. Instead, the price that emerged was largely based on a complex analysis of the need for a new drug with this one’s particular set of benefits and risks, potential competing drugs, the sentiments of cancer doctors and a shrewd assessment of how health plans were likely to treat the product.
Candidates on both sides of the aisle are talking about the harmful impact price tags have on Americans and the facts have been proven time after time: prescription drugs prices are simply out of control.
“This latest analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation paints a troubling picture for the future of the Medicare Part D program and beneficiaries who rely on access to affordable treatments.”