In drug-price fight, plenty of blame to go around

WASHINGTON — Two weeks before the U.S. decides on its next president, the health-care industry’s finger-pointing over drug costs is heating up. Insurers and pharmacy benefit managers blame pharmaceutical companies. Drugmakers blame insurers. And have you seen how much money the hospitals spend?

Whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump wins on Nov. 8, most of the players are betting that something will get done on the cost of prescription drugs.

Aprime example is a new ad out from the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, the Washington lobby group, making the case that high list prices don’t represent what drugmakers really get and that middlemen take a big cut.

“While the list price is often used in stories about prescription drug costs, it’s not what the drug company makes,” says a narrator. “Most of the control over the final cost to you, the patient, rests with your insurance company, or employer, or the PBM.”

The blame game is get- ting intense as lobbying groups see a must-pass piece of legislation to fund the Food and Drug Administration as a vehicle for price regulation. Every five years, the pharmaceutical industry negotiates “user fees” they’ll pay the FDA to review drug applications. The current authorization of the law ends in September.

AARP, which represents seniors, is part of the Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing, along with Anthem Inc., one of the U.S.’s biggest health insurers, WalMart Stores Inc. and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. The coalition has proposed having drugmakers submit for government review any price increases over 10 percent, and making it easier for generics to come to market.

Health insurers, who just six years ago were painted as villains during the passage of Obamacare, are relishing the turnabout now that drugmakers are the focus.

Hospitals have jumped in as well. Two industry trade groups this month released a report that found average annual inpatient drug spending at community hospitals rose 23 percent from 2013 to 2015.