The Washington Post 07/12/2017

High Prices Continue to Limit Access to Hepatitis C Treatment

The Washington Post takes a deeper dive on the issues highlighted in the Drug Pricing Lab's budget allocator tool.

Sarah Jane Tribble published an in-depth article on the challenges faced by Louisiana's health secretary, Dr. Rebekah Gee, in finding money to treat the state's patients with Hepatitis C. The DPL's Louisiana Budget Allocator, an interactive tool to assess the human costs of these budget tradeoffs, "shows how millions of dollars would need to be shifted in the state's discretionary budget to pay for those treatments. For instance, cutting K-12 funding by $26 million would cover treatments for 3,176 hepatitis C patients. Too often, [Dr. Peter Bach] said, discussions about costs do not illustrate the trade-offs. 'These numbers are so large that it's very difficult to think about them proportionately.'"

Read the full article here.

"Too often, discussions about costs do not illustrate the trade-offs."
Share

Research & Insights

We conduct non-partisan, independent research, and make our work accessible and informative to policymakers and the general audience alike. Browse our featured research or explore our work by article type.

Xeljanz, the FDA, and nine years of patient harm
Quantifying population-level adverse events in the near decade between when safety concerns were identified and FDA action
Drug Pricing Lab 05/31/2022
Atypical antipsychotics: Decades of use, unfathomable harms
Using attributable risk calculations to quantify how many premature deaths resulted from atypical antipsychotic use in the elderly
Drug Pricing Lab 05/31/2022
Medicare Part B Premium Dynamics Explained
The Drug Pricing Lab commissioned Milliman to prepare a report exploring the impact of changes in Medicare Part B program costs on beneficiaries’ premiums and Social Security payments. This report focuses on the 2022 Part B premium for beneficiaries with various income levels to illustrate the payment dynamics and discusses the implications for related programs.
Milliman 12/23/2021
Comparing Factors that Influence Pharmaceutical Pricing and Access in the…
Drug prices in the United States are some of the highest in the world, which has triggered several policy proposals aimed at adopting pricing strategies used by other countries.
Drug Pricing Lab 12/20/2021
Biosimilars in Medicare Part D: pricing dynamics and considerations
The Drug Pricing Lab engaged Milliman to prepare a report summarizing the pricing dynamics affecting utilization of biosimilars in the current Medicare Part D marketplace and under the proposed Part D benefit design in the Build Back Better Act.

This report was commissioned by the Drug Pricing Lab.
Milliman 12/14/2021
Evaluating Industry’s Drug Pricing Claims
A closer look at three of PhRMA’s most cited talking points.
Drug Pricing Lab 11/18/2021
Mapping conflict of interests: scoping review
A scoping review of the literature to identify all known ties between the medical product industry and the parties and activities in the healthcare ecosystem.
Drug Pricing Lab 11/03/2021
Production Plus Profit Pricing (P-quad) FAQ
08/17/2021
What A Waste! The National Academy Of Medicine’s Report On…
Why Congress should not follow the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s recommendation to remove the JW modifier.
Health Affairs Blog 07/09/2021
Medicare Must Study Unproven, Expensive Alzheimer’s Drug
Medicare cannot indiscriminately cover the cost of Aduhelm for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease without first evaluating whether it truly works.
Bloomberg Opinion 06/15/2021
Value-Based Management of Specialty Drugs: Practical Considerations and Implications for…
Not all approaches are suited to meeting policy makers and health plans’ goals of managing specialty drugs based on their value. Researchers conducted a qualitative study with Blue Cross Blue Shield plans interested in implementing value-based specialty pharmacy management to observe the plans’ objectives, strategies, and factors influencing their ability to execute on these strategies.
AJMC 05/13/2021
Trump's Drug-Pricing Ideas Would Cost Taxpayers a Bundle
Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies would stand to make a lot more money.
Bloomberg Opinion 09/29/2020
Newsletter

Stay up to date on our work and news