As drug prices go up, some point consumers up north

Susan Jaffe | Washington Correspondent for The Lancet | 8th December 2015

Pharmaceutical sticker shock has renewed American interest in drugs sold in other countries, particularly our northern neighbor.

Many Americans and even government health programs are feeling squeezed by rising drug costs, with federal officials reporting last week that US health care spending in 2014 rose at the fastest rate since 2002 “in part due to the introduction of new drug treatments for hepatitis C as well as of those used to treat cancer and multiple sclerosis.”

Treatments for hepatitis C, which affects around 3 million people in the USA, can cost more than $100,000, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Matthews Burwell said at an unprecedented day-long conference on drug pricing HHS hosted last month.

“And that’s an issue for both patients and the organizations and governments that serve them. Since more than three out of four infected adults are baby boomers, this disease has become one of the main cost drivers for Medicare’s prescription program.  Impacts have also been significant in state Medicaid programs.”

…Prompted by the HHS conference and recent price hikes, two leading Senate Republicans, Charles Grassley of Iowa and John McCain of Arizona want Burwell to use a provision of a 2003 law to certify that drug importation is safe and would significantly reduce drug prices.  [Continued here.]