TAMPA, Fla. — The conversation continues over the high prices of prescription drugs after lawmakers grilled CEOs from three of the big pharmaceutical companies last week.
It's a relatable routine for many Americans: taking prescription drugs to stay healthy.
"I have a prescription for blood pressure,” said Barbara Rosenthal.
“If my doctor orders a regular commercial name, they usually give me generic, which are much less expensive, but my wife is really the one that uses medications that are very expensive, and we have to pay for them, especially with Medicare,” said Maurice Bonilla.
And it's no surprise that some of those medications can come with a sticker shock.
"One of her medicines without insurance, the commercial brand, would be about $1,000 for three months,” said Bonilla.
"If I didn't have insurance, it would be thousands and thousands of dollars I would have to pay,” said Rosenthal.
Last week, a Senate committee questioned pharmaceutical company CEOs from Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Bristol Myers Squibb on the cost of prescription drugs.
The committee pointed out that Merck charges patients $6,900 for the diabetes drug Januvia when the same product goes for $900 in Canada and $200 in France.
In another instance, it said that Johnson & Johnson charges Americans with arthritis an eye-popping $79,000 for Stelara while the same product can be bought at $16,000 in the UK.
"That, unfortunately, comes at a fairly significant cost for those patients outside of the US,” said Chris Boerner, the CEO of Bristol Myers Squibb, during the hearing. “In Canada, patients will wait roughly three and a half to four years to get access to a medicine that is available in the US."
"First of all, probably most importantly, we have a capitalist society here, and by and large, we have an attitude that we will charge what the market will bear,” said Dr. Kevin Sneed, the Dean of USF Health’s Taneja College of Pharmacy.
Dr. Sneed explained that with research and development costs, typically, a single medication coming onto the market may actually cost a company up to a billion dollars and that they'll try to recoup those dollars.
"We do need regulation around the middlemen,” said Sneed. “I think they're making way too much money for really not providing any healthcare benefit back to the patient."
As far as solutions, Dr. Sneed pointed to streamlining the complex and costly drug approval process and needing a level of regulation to be able to put price caps on some medications or have companies justify manufacturing costs.
"At the end of the day, you go back to the saying: a medication can't work if a patient can't take it,” said Sneed.
People in Tampa also shared their thoughts on the issue.
"They should pass a law, and they should come down on these drug companies for upping the price,” said Rosenthal.
"I think the cost of medication is expensive because they put so much money into research that if they didn't, we wouldn't get the drugs that we have,” said Bonilla.
