WASHINGTON – Legislation
recently introduced by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Judiciary
Committee, and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chair of the Committee on Commerce,
Science and Transportation, to improve transparency in prescription drug
pricing was approved by the Commerce Committee with bipartisan support, 19-9. Their
bill would direct the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to hold pharmacy benefit
managers (PBMs) accountable for unfair and deceptive practices – practices that
often drive up the cost of prescription drugs at the expense of consumers.
“As the middlemen in the pharmaceutical
supply chain, pharmacy benefit managers too often get away with undisclosed
practices that increase their profits while driving up the cost of medicine for
consumers,” Grassley said. “The Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act
will direct the Federal Trade Commission to tackle these arbitrary, unfair and
deceptive practices to cultivate transparency and accountability in the
industry. I’m glad our legislation passed the Commerce Committee, and I’ll
continue working with my colleagues to ensure it receives a vote on the Senate
floor.”
Specifically, the
Pharmacy
Benefit Manager Transparency Act of 2022 would ban deceptive unfair pricing schemes, prohibit arbitrary claw
backs of payments made to pharmacies and require PBMs to report to the FTC how
much money they make through spread pricing and pharmacy fees.
Today, three PBMs control nearly 80
percent of the prescription drug market. They serve as middlemen, managing
every aspect of the prescription drug benefits process for health insurance
companies, self-insured employers, unions and government programs. They operate
out of the view of regulators and consumers — setting prescription costs,
deciding what drugs are covered by insurance plans and how they are dispensed –
pocketing unknown sums that might otherwise be passed along as savings to
consumers and undercutting local independent pharmacies. This lack of
transparency makes it impossible to fully understand if and how PBMs might be
manipulating the prescription drug market to increase profits and drive-up drug
costs for consumers.
Grassley’s bipartisan proposal is
supported by the National Community Pharmacists Association, Community Oncology
Alliance, Biotechnology Innovation Organization, American Pharmacy Cooperative,
Association of Mature American Citizens, American Pharmacists Association, Society for Human Resource Management, Diabetes Leadership Council and Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition.
Full bill text is available
HERE.
Additional background on Grassley’s
leadership to hold PBMs accountable and pass comprehensive drug-pricing reform
is available
HERE.
-30-
