Patient Access and Affordability
Middlemen mark up drug prices and keep discounts meant for you.
America is the only country in the world where entities that don’t make medicine take half of every dollar spent on brand medicines. Middlemen like PBMs, insurers and 340B hospitals mark up medicines and leave patients paying more.
This highlights a growing problem: spending on medicines is padding the profits of middlemen, often at the expense of patients.
PBMs refuse to share savings with patients.
PBMs and insurers get billions of dollars in rebates on medicines that can reduce the cost of brand medicines by 50% or more. Yet, they often fail to pass those savings directly to patients. As a result, patients can pay more for medicines than their insurer.
When patients use copay assistance, middlemen sometimes keep it for themselves by refusing to count it toward patients’ annual cost sharing limits.
340B hospitals charge big medicine markups.
Big, tax-exempt hospitals and clinics purchase medicines at prices that can be as low as a penny. They then turn around and may mark up medicines by thousands of dollars. They get away with this by exploiting, sometimes illegally, the 340B hospital markup program. 340B medicine markups are a hidden tax for patients, employers and taxpayers.
Biopharmaceutical companies are committed to American patients and workers.
PhRMA member companies are investing a record $500B in new U.S.-based manufacturing and infrastructure, which injects $1.2T into the U.S. economy. Answering a call from policy makers to let patients and businesses purchase medicines prescribed by their doctor directly – some manufacturers are setting up direct purchase programs that are more convenient and can save Americans time and money. No hassle. No hidden markups and fees. Transparent pricing for patients and businesses.
To inform patients about these programs, PhRMA is launching AmericasMedicines.com, a new website that will connect patients with manufacturer direct purchase programs for more convenient access to medicines.