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March 21, 2018

Comments

This is a very misleading discussion. The change in drug *spending* comprises both (1) prescription utilization and (2) the net, post-rebate cost of prescriptions.

For specialty drugs, growth in utilization was a bigger factor in spending growth than were costs. See http://www.drugchannels.net/2018/02/new-express-scripts-data-drug-spending.html

P.S. Trump has made even stronger public attacks on high drug prices. [But are there any actual current proposed legislative or administrative efforts?]
It is important to keep publicly noting that some of the more shockingly high drug price increases noted by the media have been for drugs that are NOT covered by any existing patents, and thus would NOT be affected by just patent law changes.
One major public cost contributor is very costly cancer treatment drugs just to keep hospitalized old people alive [if you call that living] for a few weeks longer. Again, these are not patent issues.

The inescapable conclusion: we must ban drug patents. That would lead to lower prices.

/end sarcasm/

Mr. Fein: thanks for the link, fascinating data.

I understand your point to be that the common perception is that drug costs are increasing, and the data you cite is to the contrary. But I note in your post that you say "Based on exclusive data that Express Scripts shared with me," which may be part of the problem. This data needs to be widely disseminated if the narrative accepted by policymakers is to be contradicted.

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