(Washington, D.C.) — The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) released the following statement ahead of a U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) hearing on the high price of prescription drugs in the United States.

“Lawmakers should challenge any attempt by drug company executives to evade responsibility for the high prices they alone set, and the anti-competitive tactics used to extend monopolies, which keep competitor products out of the market and drug prices high.

“Make no mistake, drug companies’ constant blaming of pharmacy benefit companies is designed to avoid accountability and further boost profits and pricing power. One pharma-backed proposal called ‘delinking,’ would boost drug company profits by $32 billion annually in the Medicare and commercial health insurance markets, while increasing health care premiums for patients by nearly $40 billion, according to Matrix Global Advisors (MGA).

“Congress should reject drug companies’ self-serving blame game, and instead focus on solutions to encourage greater competition in the prescription drug market that would lower costs for patients. PCMA supports S. 3583, legislation introduced by Senators Welch, Braun, and Klobuchar, that would help address drug company patent thickets – a common drug company anti-competitive tactic to stifle competition.”

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Don’t Take the Bait: The evidence is overwhelming that PBM-negotiated rebates are not linked to drug prices. 

• A recent Matrix Global Advisors (MGA) report found that prescription drugs with the largest list price increases do not have rebates. In fact, the MGA report found that among the top drugs with rebates, price increases were much lower than price increases for drugs without rebates.
• Another analysis using Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) data of the top 250 brand-name drugs in Medicare Part D by total spending in 2020 confirmed that price increases from big drug companies are unrelated to rebates.

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PCMA is the national association representing America’s pharmacy benefit companies. Pharmacy benefit companies are working every day to secure savings, enable better health outcomes, and support access to quality prescription drug coverage for more than 275 million patients. Learn more at www.pcmanet.org