The exciting new idea hospitals have to bring down drug prices
From the article:
To fully appreciate the scope of the generic drug pricing problem, remember that the Justice Department and 45 states are currently in court accusing generic drug makers of price fixing and costing Americans more than $1 billion for their medicines. We spend a lot of time on new brand-name drugs, but some of the most egregious examples of price hikes have been for generic drugs.
That’s the problem Civica Rx wants to solve. The company expects to start applying for FDA approval in 2019, and it is setting its sights on 14 yet-to-be-named drugs to start with. Manufacturing drugs — even generics that are no longer protected by patent — and getting FDA approval is no simple thing. But experts are cautiously optimistic.
”For a set of high-priced small molecule generics in particular, this strategy could be very useful in bringing down prices,” Rachel Sachs, a law professor who studies drug prices at Washington University in St. Louis, told me by email. “However, these companies will face many challenges on their path to market and it will be interesting to see the choices they make.”