United States Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO), the Chairwoman and Ranking Member of the Senate Aging Committee, respectively, released a report on drug pricing titled, “Sudden Price Spikes in Off-Patent Prescription Drugs: The Monopoly Business Model that Harms Patients, Taxpayers, and the U.S. Health Care System. The 131-page report details findings from the Committee’s bipartisan investigation into abrupt and dramatic price increases for prescription drugs whose patents expired long ago.
The bipartisan duo launched the Aging Committee’s investigation in November 2015 after a series of media reports detailing dramatic drug price increases after the acquisition of decades-old, off-patent, and previously affordable drugs. The investigation focused on four companies: Turing Pharmaceuticals, Retrophin, Inc., Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., and Rodelis Therapeutics. According to the Senators, evidence gathered by the Committee suggests that additional companies have employed the “monopoly business model uncovered in this report.”
During the course of the bipartisan investigation, the Aging Committee held three different hearings; interviewed patients, doctors, hospital administrators, consumer advocates, health experts, and pharmaceutical industry executives/board members; reviewed more than one million pages of documents obtained from the four companies; and deposed or took transcribed interviews of numerous corporate witnesses.
The report examines what it refers to as a “monopoly business model” used by the four aforementioned pharmaceutical companies to exploit market failures: the way companies acquired decades-old, off-patent, and previously affordable drugs, only to suddenly raise the prices “astronomically.” The report provides case studies of the four companies, explores the influence of investors, assesses the impact of price hikes on various stakeholders, and discusses potential policy responses.
Chairwoman Collins noted, “The skyrocketing prices of prescription drugs affect every American family, particularly our seniors. This report is the culmination of the Senate Aging Committee’s year-long, bipartisan investigation into the egregious price increases on a number of decades-old drugs acquired by pharmaceutical companies that act more like hedge funds. We must work to stop the bad actors who are driving up the prices of drugs that they did nothing to develop at the expense of patients just because, as one executive essentially said, ‘because I can.’”
Ranking Member McCaskill stated, “The hedge fund model of drug pricing is predatory, and immoral for the patients and taxpayers who ultimately foot the bill—especially for generic drugs that can be made for pennies per dose. We’ve got to find ways to increase competition for medicines and ensure that patients and their families aren’t being gouged.”
The report identified several potential policy responses, including:
- Enact the Increasing Competition in Pharmaceuticals Act, introduced by Chairman Collins and Ranking Member McCaskill, to incentivize competition to address regulatory uncertainty, small market size, and other factors that serve as limitations to generic entry;
- Encourage generic competition by ensuring the right to obtain samples and simplifying Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies;
- Consider allowing highly targeted, temporary prescription drug importation to provide prompt price relief for major price increases in off-patent drugs;
- Take steps to prevent the misuse of patient assistance programs and copay coupons;
- Reinvigorate the Federal Trade Commission to take greater enforcement action on drug company mergers, operations, and drug market dynamics; and
- Improve transparency in the health care system.
The report noted that “while release of the report does not indicate unanimous support of each of these policy options, we hope that it will help contribute to the ongoing discussion.”