By Karen Stokes On Wednesday, President Biden was in Las Vegas discussing how his prescription drug law is lowering health care costs and prescription drug prices for seniors across the country. Americans pay two to three times more for prescription drugs than citizens in other countries and the President and Congressional Democrats took on special […]
Eli Lilly Heeds President Joe Biden’s Call to Cap the Price of Insulin
By Karen Stokes As part of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, nearly four million seniors on Medicare with diabetes started to see their insulin costs capped at $35 per month this past January, saving some seniors hundreds of dollars for a month’s supply. President Biden made clear in his State of the Union address that […]
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To Help Patients Save Money, Congress Needs to Tackle the Middlemen in Health Care
By Sally C. Pipes As a Republican-controlled House of Representatives with a small majority opens for business in January, one member has especially big ideas for saving patients money on prescription drug costs — and the research to back it up. A year ago, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) released a comprehensive report on the role […]
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340B Doesn’t Solve Health Inequities
By Amy Hinojosa Advocates have long fought for federal funding to reach people in most need. Back in 1992, Congress established the 340B drug pricing program, which guaranteed drug discounts to hospitals serving a disproportionately high percentage of uninsured or low-income patients. Congress hoped the legislation would help hospitals provide better, less expensive care. But […]
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“March In” Is Not the Answer
By Howard Dean All Democrats and many Republicans are committed to making prescription drugs more affordable. There is one strategy that is likely to make things worse: overriding patents on drugs developed with the help of federally funded research. This “march-in” option is not a good idea. It hinges on the Bayh-Dole Act, a 40-year-old […]
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Price Controls Rob Patients of Future Therapies
By Peter J. Pitts President Donald Trump just announced a sweeping executive order that’d forbid Medicare from paying more for advanced medicines than any other developed country. This price control scheme, if implemented, would sound a death knell for medical innovation – and potentially for many patients. Drug development is expensive, time-consuming and full of […]
Trump Administration Ends Pharmacy Coupons When Patients Need Them Most
By Peter J. Pitts For chronically ill Americans, the economic damage from COVID-19 could be nearly as life-threatening as the virus itself. More than 40 million workers have filed for unemployment since the beginning of the outbreak. For many, the financial challenges of joblessness have made it harder than ever to afford their insurance companies’ […]
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Price Controls Punish U.S. Innovators and Economy
By Sally C. Pipes America’s biopharmaceutical industry dwarfs most other economic sectors. It’s one of our nation’s single biggest job creators, supporting close to a million positions across the country. And its products save countless lives each year. Yet for some reason, politicians in both parties seem determined to snuff it out by imposing crippling […]
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Sharp Cuts to Research Funding Would Deprive Patients of Hope
By Mary Stabile Congress is poised to pass two separate bills designed to bring down drug prices. House Democrats and Senate Republicans are advancing bills that would set prices on prescription medicines, both directly and indirectly. The House plan would allow the government to arbitrarily dictate the prices of 250 medicines, reducing drug companies’ revenues […]
AARP Talks the Rising Cost of Prescription Medication
By Ana Martinez-Ortiz Nancy Koch knows physical pain. She has a chronic auto immune disease, that won’t get better and is most likely only going to get worse. To help keep her body functioning, Koch takes medication, the catch is that it costs $4,000 a month. Koch is not alone, when it comes to the […]