Will drug companies get the message?

The Sunday Dispatch editorial “Drug-price measure carries dire side effects,” about the Drug Price Standards Initiative that will be on the Ohio ballet this November, was very informative but it concentrated on the shortcomings of the proposed initiative without addressing the deficiencies of the current system for pricing drugs.

The initiative requires state agencies and programs to purchase prescription drugs at prices no higher than what the US Department of Veterans Affairs pay for them. The Dispatch and more than 38 organizations have declared their opposition to the initiative. Opponents offer vague arguments claiming the initiative will result in increases in the cost of drugs and reduced access to medicine. However, they do not explain why or, more importantly, offer an alternative to fix the current system.

The complexity of the current drug-prices system makes a good case for reforming the system which hurts everybody except the pharmaceutical companies. It is encouraging to know that our political leaders, Democrats and Republicans, recognized the enormity of the problem.

President Donald Trump is in the process of drafting an executive order requiring federal agencies to use “value-based contracts” for drug purchases, and, recently, Sen. Sherrod Brown introduced the Stop Drug Price Gouging Act.

The Drug Price Standards initiative may be it is not the right answer, but it is a message to drug companies and to our political leaders that sanity has to return drug pricing.

George Elmaraghy Columbus