24 CityAndStateNY.com
Drug Deals Lawmakers agree the costs of prescription meds need to be lowered – but how? by J U L I A A G O S
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S THE NEW YORK state legislative session kicks into high gear, the debate over prescription drug prices is back on the table. Gov. Andrew Cuomo set the stage in December by previewing a proposal to reduce prescription drug costs, including a cap on insulin payments, greater powers to investigate spikes in drug prices and the importation of Canadian drugs. Then, in late December, he vetoed a bill that had the same goal – by regulating pharmaceutical benefit managers. But in his budget proposal, Cuomo included a provision that aims to increase transparency of PBMs, which negotiate drug prices on behalf of insurers and employers. The language in the proposal is similar to that of the bill he vetoed in December. Both would require PBMs to register with the state and disclose financial incentives for promoting certain drugs. Cuomo and his Democratic colleagues have the same goal – lowering prescription drug costs – but they disagreed on the details. Cuomo’s office did not respond to a request for comment on how the bill he vetoed differs from his new proposal to regulate pharmacy benefit managers. The policy debate in Albany comes amid calls across the country to contain prescription drug prices. Following stories of drug companies raising prescription costs a thousand times over, state and the federal governments are trying to come up with ways to keep prices affordable for patients.
“It’s a matter of life and death,” Cuomo said in his State of the State address. Drug costs began to rise in the United States in the late 1990s as monopolies in the prescription drug industry grew. Between 1997 and 2007, drug spending in the United States tripled, according to Health Affairs. Advocates for reform point to cases like Heather Bresch, whose company, Mylan, increased the cost of the EpiPen by 500% in just eight years. Or the “Pharma Bro,” Martin Shkreli, who raised the price of an AIDS drug 5,000% as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals. The issue caught the attention of federal lawmakers after Shannon Weston testified before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging in 2016 about the life-saving drug her 1-year-old daughter needed to fight a parasitic infection. The family could not afford the drug after it spiked from $13.50 to $75 a tablet in 2015. While Cuomo’s budget proposal includes several reforms, lawmakers are pointing to the bill passed by both houses to regulate pharmacy benefit managers that Cuomo vetoed last session. Sponsored by state Sen. Neil Breslin and Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, it would have required PBMs to register with the state and obtain a license. PBMs are responsible for the pharmacy benefits management of over 266 million Americans, according to a study conducted by the state Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations. The committee, which is chaired by state Sen. James Skoufis, concluded that PBMs play a
