Clinton announces plan to tackle “unjustified price hikes”
pharmafile | September 5, 2016 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Drug pricing, Shkreli, US, clinton, generic drugs, president, price hikes
US Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has outlined a wide-ranging set of proposals to tackle what she calls the “unjustified price hikes for long-available drugs”.
In part, the proposals are a response to the recent Mylan, EpiPen scandal as well the Valeant and Shkreli scandals of the previous year. However, a statement on her website points out: “this is not an isolated problem: between 2008 and 2015, drug makers increased the prices of almost 400 generic drugs by over 1,000%.”
If elected president, Clinton has outlined a set of proposals that she would implement to try and tackle this problem. She plans to establish dedicated consumer oversight at public health and competition agencies, which will determine an unjustified, outlier price increase based on specific criteria including the trajectory of the price increase, the cost of production and the relative value to patients.
New enforcement tools will also be put in place, which include directly intervening to increase competition through the provision of alternatives, emergency importation of safe treatments and penalties for unjustified price increases to hold drug companies accountable and fund expanded access.
A Clinton statement says: “Hillary is offering an aggressive, immediate response plan to provide relief from unjustified drug price spikes for treatments, like EpiPens or pyrimethamine, that have long been on the market, where there has been little or no innovation or additional research and development.”
“In combination with her broader to agenda to lower prescription drug costs, which she is reiterating today, these strong new tools will ensure Americans can afford prescription drugs, and make sure that drug companies get ahead through innovation and research, rather than unjustified price increases.”
The pharmaceutical industry has been in Clinton’s crosshairs for quite some time, after the public outcry over Turing Pharmaceuticals, run by the infamous Martin Shkreli, who raise the price of a generic AIDS medicine by over 5000%. She has sharply criticised the practice of raising drug prices in numerous public statements and campaign adverts.
Her rival for the presidency, Donald Trump, has also criticised the pharmaceutical industry in the run-up to the election, singling out Shkreli and Pfizer’s now-failed merger with Allergan.
Sean Murray
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