PhRMA Celebrates New Direct-to-Patient Sales. That Model Won’t Work to Broadly Lower U.S. Drug Prices
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) announced a new website, AmericasMedicines.com, to support direct-to-patient sales of prescription drugs.
The announcement comes on the same day as the White House’s deadline for drugmakers to offer Americans lower prices or face government action, including an expected rule on most-favored nation pricing. In its statement, PhRMA said it’s “answering President Trump’s call to put America first by strengthening America’s leadership, improving access for patients and supporting good-paying jobs.”
Meanwhile, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), ranking member of the Senate health committee, issued a report showing that prices for nearly 700 prescription drugs are higher now than when Donald Trump took office.
Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Director Peter Maybarduk issued the following statement:
“PhRMA’s answer to universal anger about its outrageous prices, which cause treatment rationing and suffering and every year waste tens of billions in healthcare dollars is, laughably, a website.
“You would think a trillion-dollar industry that prides itself on innovation could do better. You would be wrong.
“Puffing up direct-to-patient sales lets Big Pharma pass the blame for high prices to insurers and benefit managers, without taking serious responsibility itself to make medicine affordable.
“Some drugmakers have announced lower list prices for some drugs through direct-to-patient sales. These have a use, though they open new avenues for abuse and overprescription. The new direct-to-patient website prices are still unaffordably high for most patients and cannot substitute for offering broadly low prices to insurers and benefit managers, to support widespread access.
“PhRMA also put figures today to its U.S. infrastructure investments and patient assistance programs. Most of these are not new, and patient assistance programs are notoriously hard to navigate. Lowering prices is a simpler way to promote access to medicine. High prices start with Big Pharma. Prices won’t fall until we crack down on drug corporations.”