NCPA on Biden drug pricing plan: Include PBMs/insurers to truly lower costs

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — National Community Pharmacists Association CEO B. Douglas Hoey, pharmacist, MBA issued the following statement today in response to President Biden’s drug pricing remarks:

B. Douglas Hoey

“The president’s plan takes a swing at lowering drug prices and whiffs by ignoring the most glaring cause of high drug costs. Pharmacy benefit managers and their insurer-partner/owners continue to manipulate drug costs so consumers pay more, steer patients to their own pharmacies, and squeeze small-business neighborhood pharmacies with backdoor fees. PBMs are operating in the shadows to pad their pockets. To truly lower drug costs, PBM business practices must be reformed. Stopping PBM profiting from deceptive, anticompetitive business practices on the backs of taxpayers and small business owners should be the first priority for this administration’s playbook to lower drug costs.

“Our health care system is complex, but, as we’ve seen over the last year with the incredible development and administration of COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and tests, it leads the world and offers hope to patients everywhere. Bringing down drug costs requires changing the prescription payment system. Unfortunately, the president’s plan doesn’t accomplish that. The U.S. pays the highest drug costs in the world and it is the only country with a government that supports PBMs controlling the nation’s prescription drug benefit. We urge President Biden to go back to the drawing board and focus on the PBM middlemen in the thick of it all.”