Here are four things to know.
1. During a Wednesday conference call, GlaxoSmithKline CEO Andrew Witty cited an industry-sponsored report showing drugmakers only keep two-thirds out of every $100 of a drug’s list price. The remaining amount goes to middlemen — like PBMs — in the pharmaceutical supply chain. Mr. Witty referred to them as “non-innovators in a system which thinks it’s paying high prices for innovation.”
2. The current drug system “allows these drug middlemen to extract enormous profits with limited oversight and transparency,” said Susan Pilch, vice president for policy and regulatory affairs at the National Community Pharmacists Association, which represents 22,000 independent pharmacies, according to the report.
3. In response to growing criticism, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association released a six-point plan among its members this week, reports Bloomberg. The plan includes the lobby group’s strategy to communicate with members of the Trump Administration, run new ads and tap allies like lobby groups for senior citizens and health insurers.
“We have an aggressive campaign to defend affordable drug benefits, to defend the tools PBMs use to reduce costs,” PCMA CEO Mark Merritt told Bloomberg in a phone interview Wednesday. “PBMs are part of that solution [to lower drug costs].”
4. The lobby group’s new plan also suggests shortening the time period drugmakers have exclusive sales rights on new treatments and raising taxes on the industry as a way to lower drug costs.
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