BOISE, Idaho — New independent health polling shows that close to 30% of Americans say it is difficult to afford the cost of their prescription medicine. On top of that, 31% of those surveyed say they haven’t taken their medicine as prescribed because of the cost.
The same survey, done by KFF, found that about eight in 10 people, across political parties, said drug company profits are a major contributing factor to prescription drug costs.
“One in four Americans state that they have financial difficulty affording a prescribed medication. That's a crisis,” said John Conradi, spokesman for The Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing.
Conradi is part of the team pushing for new legislation in Congress, the Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act of 2023.
So, what does it do?
“Lower prescription drug prices by focusing on the root of the problem, and that's the egregious practices of big Pharma,” Conradi said.
The new KFF poll shows that close to 75% think there is not as much regulation as there should be when it comes to limiting the price of prescription drugs. Conradi and the team at The Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing point to a pharmaceutical practice known as “the patent dance,” a way to extend an exclusive patent.
On blockbuster medications that generate, you know, many billions of dollars in profit for large pharmaceutical companies, they often engage in a practice called product hopping or the patent dance, where just as that product is about to face generic or biosimilar competition for the first time, they make a teeny tweak in that drug,” Conradi said. “Then patent that new product to extend exclusivity, extend monopoly on that product, and be able to keep charging patients high prices and blocking access to more affordable options.”
The legislation has support from major Republicans and Democrats in Washington. The challenge these days is competing ideas on how to take on the problem. There are also those who said that’s just business.
“Nobody disputes that big pharma companies that come up with true innovations deserve some period of agreed upon exclusivity for true innovation. But what's happening is you have big pharma companies gaming the patent system to extend monopoly pricing on products long beyond what is an agreed upon reasonable period of exclusivity to boost their profits and keep prices high while blocking patients from being able to access more affordable alternatives,” Conradi said.
KTVB reached out to the Gem State Senate delegation for insight on the topic but did not receive an immediate response. We do know that Idaho Senator Mike Crapo is passionate on the topic. He spoke in Twin Falls this week about a different strategy to bring drug prices down by focusing on Pharmacy Benefit Managers, third-party administrators of prescription plans. They are accused of pushing prices because of a lack of accountability.
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