Calling the Shots?

The USA has the highest drug costs in the world, and they are increasing at the fastest rate too. With one in five Americans saying they have been forced to leave a prescription unfilled due to high costs, the situation is clearly unsustainable.Payers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), themselves facing increased criticism for blocking access to important medicines, are taking action by demanding that pharma companies justify the cost – and value – of their new medicines.“There is a point where a government, an employer or a healthcare plan has a finite amount of resources to spend,” says Brian Henry, VP Corporate Communications, at Express Scripts. “As a PBM it is our job to make sure that a payer gets every dollar of value from a medicine. We are not afraid to take on the big challenges; that’s not saying ‘No’ to innovation, it’s saying ‘Yes’ to making it more affordable. We have an opportunity to really bend the cost curve here and change it.”“What biotech and pharma have brought to market is amazing – incredibly advanced medicines that are helping to cure and treat diseases that we never thought possible. But if innovation is not accessible then it really isn’t innovation at all.”He says payers have reached their upper limits in terms of budgets and the situation has become unsustainable. “If it keeps up we may not have a drug industry in the next 10 to 15 years that looks anything like what we have today,” he warns.Who To Trust? In...
Source: EyeForPharma - Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Source Type: news