States use transparency laws to fight escalating drug prices

States are turning to transparency laws to fight rising drug prices with 15 states introducing bills to require pharmaceutical companies, health insurers and benefit managers to provide explanations for their costs and how they arrive at drug prices. The drug industry is fighting back and has had some success to defending their interests. (The Hill, March 3, 2017, by Sarah Chacko)

A Harvard Medical School expert in drug law and regulation advised a Connecticut health care panel that it was crucial to address the ballooning rise in drug prices.  Ameet Sarpatwari said state action was crucial and outlined a number of options. He said transparency could help identify unnecessary drug price increases but cautioned that transparency had its limits in producing desirable outcomes. He suggested one avenue was to determine the value of a drug over against its price. That would require the difficult task of gathering information about the efficacy of a drug.  (the ct mirror, January 11, 2017, by Arielle Levin Becker)