NPC in Specialty Pharmacy Times: International Drug Pricing Index Model Could Restrict Innovation, Access

National Pharmaceutical Council President and Chief Executive Officer Dan Leonard says that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposal to tie American drug prices to an international pricing index undermines efforts to prioritize value and improve patient outcomes over utilization and sickness.

In his latest column for Specialty Pharmacy Times, Leonard explains the methodological limitations of CMS’s proposal:

• Countries selected for international comparison are not comparable with the United States because they are based on GDP and health care delivery systems that are totally different;
• Incentives for biopharmaceutical innovation would be negatively affected by the use of international reference pricing;
• The countries under consideration have not adopted value-based pricing elements in their pricing and reimbursement decisions; and
• Policies aimed at reducing health care spending should apply to all categories of services, not just prescription medicines.

He also discusses promising alternatives to the international pricing index model that warrant further exploration, such as focusing on U.S. market-based approaches to managing prescription medicine costs and allowing the market to negotiate and determine prices for biopharmaceutical products via value-based arrangements and indication-based pricing.

Read his column on the Specialty Pharmacy Times website.