The Day After Tomorrow – The Drug Pricing Transparency Chorus Grows Louder

Drug pricing transparency, as a concept at least, is here to stay. However, the details of what that means and the new obligations that pharmaceutical companies will need to deal with are yet to be determined. For pharmaceutical compliance professionals, 2018 will continue to be a time of high uncertainty and an ever-increasing workload. This article examines the current state and what the future may hold.

Breaking with the tradition of past Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) heads, Dr. Scott Gottlieb continues to speak out on drug pricing and competition; topics usually considered outside of the Commissioner’s purview. However, Dr. Gottlieb is not alone.

The chorus of advocates calling for transparency in drug pricing transparency has rapidly grown from citizen activists and academics to legislators at all levels of government and now the FDA Commissioner. What is remarkable is the uniformity of their reasoning why transparency is necessary and the disparity of their ideas of what drug pricing transparency looks like.