Determined to slow the rapid rise in drug prices, more health plans in the US are refusing to cover certain drugs unless the companies drop prices. And, reports [s]The New York Times[/s], the strategy appears to be getting pharmaceutical makers to compete on price. Some big-selling products, like the respiratory medicine Advair and the diabetes drug Victoza, have suffered precipitous declines in market share because [b]Express Scripts[/b], the biggest pharmacy benefits manager, recently stopped paying for them for many patients. ‘There’s clearly more price competition in the marketplace,’ Andrew Witty, CEO of [b]GlaxoSmithKline[/b], said. Executives of pharmacy benefit management firms say they must do something to cope with rising prices, particularly for so-called specialty pharmaceuticals, which are used to treat complex diseases like cancer and multiple sclerosis.
[link url=http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/21/business/health-plans-bring-pressure-to-bear-on-drug-prices.html?emc=edit_th_20140621&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=60640071&_r=0]Full report in The New York Times[/link]