November 18, 2021 6:11 AM By Brandon Lee and Alex Ruoff
House Republicans say Democrats are making a crucial misstep by taking on drug pricing reforms without focusing on the role pharmacy benefit managers play in the rising costs of medicines in the U.S.
The chamber today is scheduled to consider the $1.75 trillion tax and spending package encompassing much of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.
Democrats have “given a free pass to pharmacy benefit managers even though they play an outsized role in driving up rebates and list prices of prescription drugs,” Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) said during a forum on PBMs hosted by Republican members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee.
Comer and other Republicans remarked that PBMs—companies hired by insurers to managed prescription drug benefits—reap rewards from rebates, essentially coupons given out by drugmakers, and pharmacy fees. He said both have driven up the cost of many drugs. PBM industry groups have countered that drugmakers themselves are free to set their own prices and should bare responsibility for drug costs.
Democrats, in their proposed $1.75 billion spending bill, take aim at drugmakers by empowering the government to negotiation with pharmaceutical companies for lower prices and capping price increases. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who has played a central role in designing Democrats’ drug pricing bill, told reporters on Tuesday that he wants to add more PBM reforms to the spending bill but declined to offer details.
Comer said if Republicans retake the majority in the House he expects they’ll try to take on PBM reforms, Alex Ruoff reports.
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