Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Prescription drug prices in the United States are "unsustainable, unjustified and unfair," according to a new 269-page report released on Friday by the House Oversight Committee.
Soaring drug prices have been a bipartisan issue and a long sore spot for consumers, particularly those with ongoing health issues. House Democrats, led by committee chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said the report was culled from internal company documents and past Congressional hearings.
"What the committee has learned should be troubling to lawmakers, taxpayers and any American who has ever struggled to afford their prescriptions," Maloney said in a statement. "Drug companies have raised prices relentlessly for decades while manipulating the patent system and other laws to delay competition from lower-priced generics."
Maloney accused pharmaceutical companies of targeting the U.S. market for higher prices, even while cutting prices in other countries to take advantage of healthcare system rules that allowed them a freer hand in pricing.
Related
She said their efforts amounted to "outrageous prices and anticompetitive conduct."
"The evidence overwhelmingly supports the need to pass the Build Back Better Act, which will empower Medicare to negotiate for lower prices, restrain price increases, and cap out-of-pocket patient costs for insulin and other drugs," Maloney said.
Republicans on the Oversight Committee released a competing review on Friday, laying the blame for high prices squarely on pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. The healthcare middlemen administer prescription drug plans for more than 266 million U.S. residents who have health insurance.
"Pharmacy benefit managers must be held accountable for their role in rising prescription drug prices, and Congress must take on PBMs to implement transparency and restore competition," committee ranking member James Comer, R-Ky., said in a statement.
"Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee are shining a light on this issue in the healthcare system and will continue to examine solutions to make prescription drugs more affordable for all Americans."
Comer blames PBMs for using their market leverage to drive up drug costs, which increases their payouts despite discounting efforts by drug companies.
"Any report that focuses only on pharmacy benefit managers seems to purposefully take a narrow view and is therefore going to miss the mark," J.C. Scott, president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, said in an emailed statement to UPI. The PCMA is a trade group that represents PBMs.
"PBMs are the only entity in the drug and payment supply chain that actually reduces prescription drug costs for patients. Instead, policymakers should focus on increasing affordability for patients through more competition, market forces, and a focus on getting value for scarce health care dollars."
