Congress recently enacted government mandates on employers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) – the ones who counter the pricing power of Big Pharma and deliver savings for American patients and employers. This intervention, dictating contract terms for employers and PBMs, was the result of a years-long campaign by Big Pharma to distract attention and keep prescription drug prices high.

Now that it’s done, Congress must now take a harder look at the real factors driving up drug costs – for example, Big Pharma’s abuse of the patent system and the role of the big drug wholesalers who wield enormous control over the prices of generic drugs and the health of pharmacies.

As reported in Benefits Pro, PCMA has said that the transparency now provided by PBMs should also be available from wholesalers and the Pharmacy Services Administrative Organizations (PSAOs) they use to set the price of generic medicines.

David Marin, [PCMA President and CEO] told members of the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee that the new federal PBM transparency laws… will require PBMs to send employer plan sponsors “reams of information” on each prescription transaction and questioned why the transparency mandate applies only to PBMs. “It should be applied across the supply chain,” Marin said. – Benefits Pro: PBM Trade Group Demands Supply Chain Transparency For All

Going further, a renewed focus on the way Big Pharma games the patent system to keep drug prices high is more important than ever after PBM reform, given the way it stands to tie the hands of employers as they combat rising drug prices. As Jeremy Nighohossian, senior fellow and economist at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) warns, “Misconceptions about drug prices have driven Congress to prescribe a specific structure for PBM contracts, one that puts the preferences of Congress and other stakeholders above consumer choice and welfare…Their bill will have negative unintended consequences and will put the benefits consumers have enjoyed over the past 20 years — transition to generics, lower overall costs, and newer medicines — at risk.”

Congress must now turn the page on Big Pharma’s blame game and start holding big drug companies accountable for their patent abuse that keeps Americans paying the highest drug prices in the world. At the same time, as transparency is maximized in the PBM space, now is the time for new sunlight on the role of wholesalers and PSAOs in the drug supply chain.