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Editor’s Note: Texas Democrat Lloyd Doggett Represents the Newly Created 37th Congressional District. President Robert Weisman citizen, consumer advocacy groups. The views expressed in this commentary are their own.read more opinions on CNN.
CNN
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Last summer, Congress voted to make medicines affordable for older people by allowing Medicare to negotiate some drug prices, limit price increases for drug companies, and lower out-of-pocket costs. passed overdue drug price reforms.
A step forward, but not enough to quell growing anger over astronomical drug prices, and did nothing for the more than 200 million Americans without Medicare.
The negotiated prices won’t go into effect until 2026, making it illegal for Medicare to negotiate prices for most drugs. To provide rapid and broad relief to all patients, not just those who rely on Medicare, President Joe Biden must use his existing powers to curb drug monopolies. .
In the United States, prices for life-saving treatments for everything from diabetes to cancer are steadily rising.
From July 2021 to July 2022, pharmaceutical companies increased the prices of over 1,200 medicines by an average of 31.6%. This is well above inflation, according to his one report for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). And this month, pharmaceutical companies plan to raise prices on more than 350 drugs.
The president already has the necessary powers to lower the prices of prescription drugs, but so far he has not responded to demands from patients, supporters and members of Congress for monopoly pricing. The administration is reluctant to use the two major powers at its disposal to deal with the overpriced medicine crisis.
These tools include government powers to issue licenses to surrender patents, allowing generic competitors to enter the market early in exchange for reasonable compensation to patent holders. The federal government used this law repeatedly in the 1960s to purchase low-cost generic versions of patented drugs. We also routinely use this authority for other technologies such as night vision goggles and electronic passports.
The second tool the president can use relates to taxpayer-funded inventions. For drugs invented with taxpayers’ money, the government has the right to ensure that the patent is used by generic competitors to ensure that the drug is “available to the public on reasonable terms.”
Today’s high drug prices make no sense. According to the 2019 Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll, about 1 in 4 Americans taking prescription drugs say they can’t afford them, and a new study found that 1.3 million people with diabetes More Americans are delaying, skipping, or rationing insulin purchases due to costs, a study found.
Unfortunately, the new federal law won’t lower the price of insulin, it will only limit how much Medicare beneficiaries can pay for insulin each month. This is despite the fact that patients are uninsured and private insurance rations insulin at higher rates. There is a nature.
Even more ridiculous, according to a 2021 Rand report, Americans pay 2.5 times more for prescription drugs than people in other countries. For the top 20 best-selling drugs, pharmaceutical companies made more money in the United States than in all other countries of the world combined, according to Public Citizen analysis. Other countries are engaging in meaningful price negotiations that not only lower drug prices relative to what Americans are paying, but also encourage better innovation.
Last year, cancer survivors petitioned HHS to use its enforcement powers to cut costs for the exorbitant prostate cancer drug Xtandi. In a recent letter to HHS Director Xavier Becerra, they noted that 33,000 men have died of prostate cancer since their petition went unanswered.
Xtandi was developed with U.S. taxpayer funds, but costs U.S. patients about $190,000 annually, according to Knowledge Ecology International, a nonprofit focused on medical intellectual property. It costs six times more than other large and wealthy countries. Advocacy groups and her 100 members of Congress have asked HHS to allow a hearing on her Xtandi petition.
Even strong behavioral threats can drive prices down, as we saw with anti-anthrax cipro in 2001. His HHS secretary at the time, Tommy Thompson, threatened to approve generic competition, cutting the price in half. The actions against Xtandi could cause pharmaceutical company executives to widely rethink their practices.
To meet the needs of millions of Americans struggling to get the drugs they need, Biden said last year’s narrow legislative advances would be catalyzed by broader relief through administrative action. You have to make sure that
Now is the time for the Biden administration to act to ensure life-saving medicines are affordable for all.
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