CALIFORNIA/DRUGS/PHARMA: “California’s governor has signed a bill into law that requires pharmaceutical companies to give notice and reason for price increases of certain drugs, placing the state at the center of the national debate over costs over prescription drugs’ costs.
The law, which drew bipartisan legislative support and Democrat Gov. Jerry Brown signed Monday [10-9-17], requires that, starting Jan. 1, 2019, companies give a 60-day notice if list prices of drugs are raised more than 16% in a two-year period. The law applies to drugs with a wholesale price of more than $40 for a 30-day supply. Health plans and insurers would also have to file annual reports outlining how drug costs affect health-care premiums in the state.
‘We need answers for the child who needs an EpiPen, the hepatitis C patient who needs Sovaldi, and the AIDS patient who needs Daraprim,’ said Democratic State Assemblyman David Chiu in a statement.
Trade group Biotechnology Innovation Association, one of the groups that is suing Nevada over a similar measure in that state regarding insulin prices, said in a statement the new law ‘seriously jeopardizes the future of California’s leadership’ in biopharmaceutical innovation and ‘will neither provide meaningful information to patients nor lower prescription drug costs.’
Sen. Ed Hernandez, the lead sponsor, retorted: ‘I just can’t see how that’s the case.’
The law, Mr. Hernandez said, doesn’t set prices, and companies could still raise prices and invest in innovation, albeit they would have to disclose and justify those price increases.”
-Maria Armental, “California Governor Signs Bill Requiring Greater Drug Price Transparency,” The Wall Street Journal online, Oct. 9, 2017 09:19pm