For far too long in the United States we have seen skyrocketing costs for prescription drugs that are needed to maintain health and treat illness. I see it every day as a physician practicing in Traverse City, Michigan. There is no reason patients should continue to pay three times what other nations pay for the same drugs. It is unfortunate that 58% of Michiganders report not filling a prescription because of the cost.
The Prescription Drug Affordability Board (PDAB) – introduced in Senate Bills 483-485 – would serve as a much-needed consumer watchdog to provide much-needed prescription drug cost relief. We applaud the Michigan Senate for voting to create a PDAB in Michigan and we urge the Michigan House to make this a priority, now that they have returned to Lansing.
The PDAB would create an independent body of experts in health care economics, health policy and clinical medicine with the ability to set upper payment limits on prescriptions here in Michigan.
We know the main reason that costs are so high is because pharmaceutical companies are more concerned with huge profits, not patient access and care.
We know those same companies are fighting this legislation with their army of 1,800 lobbyists and groups they fund to spread lies about the PDAB.
Right now, Big Pharma’s process of setting the prices for prescription drugs is done in secret and focused on corporate profits. A PDAB would bring this process out of the shadows and into public view and it would focus on patient affordability.
A PDAB would work to bring down costs and this is what the opposition is railing against.
All members of the board would be required to follow strict conflict-of-interest policies to ensure transparency and accountability. It would include nonpartisan leaders and experts in health care economics, health policy and clinical medicine.
The board would carefully consider a prescription drug individually and go through a deliberative process to determine whether it is affordable.
Michigan is not the first state to go this route: Six other states have already created a PDAB.
In Colorado, we are seeing a fitting example of how the process works and how the scare tactics of the pharmaceutical companies work as well. Several months ago, their PDAB selected five drugs for a four-step affordability review. One of the drugs was Trikafta, a newer treatment for cystic fibrosis. Patients who have found success with this new drug worried the pharmaceutical company that makes it would pull it from the shelves in their state if the PDAB set an upper payment limit.
The Colorado PDAB held public hearings, where dozens of stakeholders submitted comments. The board compiled a nearly 600-page report and placed it on their public website for all to see.
In December, the Colorado PDAB ruled the drug was affordable and voted not to set an upper payment limit on Trikafta.
That is the way this process is supposed to work. A thorough and thoughtful analysis of each drug brought before the board is done – out in the open – and it does not mean that every drug will automatically have a cost cap set on it.
But we do know there are other more common drugs whose costs are far too high and a PDAB would benefit Michiganders by taking that same in-depth look into a drug’s affordability and setting upper payment limits.
Those who take, or who care for loved ones who take, prescription drugs should see beyond the scare tactics and know that the PDAB would be there to benefit all of us.
The sole purpose of the board would be to ensure the drugs we need to live are affordable and, as a result, would be accessible to my patients – and all Michigan residents.
David Best, D.O., is a member of the Committee to Protect Healthcare. He lives in northern Michigan.