Follow-up to Prescription Drug Reform Conference Call
Thank you for joining our conference call last Friday discussing state policy options for prescription drug reform. We want to thank our co-sponsors, the National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices (NLARx), Prescription Policy Choices, and The Prescription Project for their support and expertise.
The need for Rx drug reform is clear. In 2007, the US spent $287 billion on prescription drugs, representing 14% of all health care spending. Driving this expense, in part, is the pharmaceutical industry which spends $30 billion each year on marketing, often regardless of a drug's efficacy, including $7 billion targeted directly at physicians to influence their prescribing decisions.
As presenters made clear during the call, states have a panoply of options for reducing drug prices, saving state budgets millions of dollars in costs without reducing access to medications, ensuring the quality and safety of prescriptions, and countering the cost-driving influence of the drug industry's marketing tactics. This e-mail includes additional information on these issues and links to the presenters on Friday's call, all of whom offer an array of resources for state lawmakers and advocates to advance sound prescription drug policies.
To read Progressive States Network's Stateside Dispatch presenting state policy options for addressing these and other drug reform issues - "Focus on Prescription Drug Reform" - please click here.
Conference Call Overview - Speaker Presentations and Resources
To hear a recording of the conference call, please click here.
- Maine State Rep. and Executive Director of NLARx, Sharon Treat - Rep. Treat presented an array of options for reducing state spending on prescription drug costs while maintaining and expanding access to prescriptions. Options include integrating the Medicaid supplemental rebate process into a state Prescription Drug List, promoting the use of generic medications as a cost saving initiative, and making use of 340B programs. NLARx provides key resources for legislators and advocates, including model legislation, talking points, research and analysis, and testimony.
- Link: National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices (NLARx)
- Link: Maine State Rep. Sharon Treat and Executive Director of NLARx
- Link: Policy Options for States, March 2008
- New Hampshire State Rep. Cindy Rosenwald , Chair of the Health and Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee - Rep. Rosenwald discussed passage of HB 1346 in 2006, the country's first state ban on "data mining." Data mining is the process by which drug industry marketers purchase the prescribing history of medical professionals and use it to target their marketing efforts, thereby driving up the cost of prescriptions. The New Hampshire law is currently being argued in the courts.
- Link: State Rep. Cindy Rosenwald
- Link: HB 1346, requiring certain persons to keep the contents of prescriptions confidential
- Link: Data Mining: Myths and Rebuttals
- Link: Legal Analysis - The Constitutional Battle Over State Regulation of Data Mining
- Washington State Rep. Jamie Pedersen, Assistant Majority Whip - Rep. Pedersen authored legislation this session banning "data mining" and discussed the high-stakes campaign waged by proponents and opponents. As Rep. Pedersen explained, despite the strong efforts of a new Rx reform coalition, the PhRMA lobby opposing HB 2664 created enough confusion around the proposal to keep it from a vote in the House after passing the Senate. Despite the bill's defeat, the issue has been raised effectively and proponents will likely attempt reform again pending the court's decision on the New Hampshire law.
- Link: State Rep. Jamie Pedersen
- Link: SB 6241 , prohibiting the sale and use of prescriber-identifiable prescription data for marketing or promotional purposes
- Ann Woloson, Executive Director of Prescription Policy Choices - Ms. Woloson discussed what states can do to assure the quality and safety of prescriptions. Ms. Woloson discussed state-based "academic detailing" initiatives which send medical professionals to doctors offices with unbiased and scientific information concerning the effectiveness of certain medications. Academic detailers counter the sales pitch of drug industry representatives (also called detailers), who promote the newest and most expensive celebrity-drug over medications that are just as or more effective and often less expensive. Ms. Woloson is organizing a multi-state academic detailing collaborative between Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
- Link: Prescription Policy Choices (PPC)
- Link: News release announcing PPC's academic detailing initiative
- Pete Wyckoff, The Prescription Project - Mr. Wyckoff discussed the Project's work supporting state efforts by legislators and advocates to, in part, reduce the cost-driving influence of drug industry marketing. The Prescription Project provides research and analysis and is helping establish coalitions in key states to move effective legislation as well as working with academic medical centers to strengthen ethical standards within the medical community.
- Link: The Prescription Project
- Link: Fact Sheets
If you would like additional information on these and other prescription drug reform issues, I encourage you to contact the speakers directly or contact me at athompson@progressivestates.org or (212) 680-3116, ext. 105.
Sincerely,
Adam
__________________________
Adam Thompson
Senior Health Policy Specialist
Progressive States Network
athompson@progressivestates.org
www.progressivestates.org