“While today’s vote is a testament to the ongoing power of the drug industry, which has spent more than $66 million to defeat meaningful biogenerics reform, we  hope that the final House and Senate bills will instead reflect the interests of employers, unions, consumers, seniors – and even the President himself – all of whom desperately want to reduce drug costs.

“In addition, we have very strong concerns that the PBM disclosure amendment would undermine proven PBM tools used to lower costs and enhance quality. Public disclosure of sensitive pricing information could result in drug manufacturers being made aware of their competitors’ negotiating strategies and raise prices accordingly.  The greatest beneficiaries of this type of disclosure are drug manufacturers, not consumers or taxpayers.

“The Federal Trade Commission and others have explored this issue and found that the wrong kind of transparency increases, rather than decreases costs.  The Congressional Budget Office concluded that such a policy would have increased Medicare Part D’s costs by 10 percent if it had been included in the program.

“With respect to other issues raised during the amendment process, PCMA opposes ‘direct negotiation’ for pharmaceuticals by the federal government in Medicare Part D.  Allowing the federal government to ‘negotiate’ prescription drug prices would result in a significant cost shift to consumers enrolled in existing employer-provided drug coverage.”