Drug companies face scrutiny from lawmakers looking to lower cost

Members of the Health Care Financing Committee on Thursday pressed pharmaceutical industry representatives to identify ways drug manufacturers can help bring more transparency to their pricing and lower costs for consumers. "You all have had a long time to be transparent," Sen. Cindy Friedman, the committee's Senate chair, said. "Pharmaceutical companies have had a long time to come to the table and say let us be as transparent as our insurance companies are and as all the other parts of health care that we patrol. You have had that opportunity, and you haven't done it. With all due respect, we want you at the table but we need you to be equal partners and be willing to understand that you have skin in the game, we have skin in the game, everybody in this room does." Friedman directed her comments to Leslie Wood of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Patrick Plues of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, and Robert Coughlin of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, who testified together during a hearing on drug pricing, access and transparency bills. The hearing, at its outset, was so crowded that advocates and interested parties spilled out of the open doorways into the hall. Much of the testimony focused on legislation filed by Sen. Jason Lewis and Rep. Christine Barber that takes various steps in hopes of managing the rising costs of prescription drugs, which Lewis said was the most urgent health policy issue facing lawmakers. He said prescription spending in MassHealth has doubled over the past five years, growing at twice the rate of other MassHealth spending.