Summer Study Committee To Study High Drug Prices

Indiana lawmakers will examine high prescription drug prices in a study committee this summer.  They will consider many factors that play into the pricing system.

From manufacturer to patient, medicine in the United States moves through a complicated supply chain.  Indiana legislators explored high drug prices this past session and will tackle the issue this summer again.

Hope Charters, Indiana chapter leader with the #insulin4all campaign led by nonprofit T1International says as this issue becomes more public, there is a lot of finger pointing.

"Pharmaceutical companies are blaming PBMs, PBMs are blaming the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies and so it’s like, which story is right?" says Charters. 

PBMs are pharmacy benefit managers, one of the areas of study listed for the committee. Rebates, trends in health care spending and patents will also be discussed.

Charters says soaring costs are a matter of life and death.  

"If you start rationing your insulin, you can go into diabetic ketoacidosis and be gone within days, and that’s happened before," says Charters. 

Drug pricing legislation can allow states to collect data on generic brands, production costs and sales to curb price hikes.