To the Editor:
Ever have an idea that you think is going to be the ‘next big thing’ only to later have it not work out for any number of reasons? Welcome to world of drug research! In my years leading research and development for Pfizer in Groton, I saw many great ideas come to fruition, to help patients cure or better manage their medical conditions, and many other promising ideas not work out—even after having invested thousands of hours of manpower, and millions, even billions in research dollars.
That’s why it always confounds me when I hear people talking about the high cost of prescription medications. Do patients end up paying too much for their prescriptions? Yes. Does the blame for that fall only on the pharmaceutical companies? In most cases, the answer is no.
That is why short sighted and headline grabbing legislation being proposed in Hartford could be extremely problematic for our state’s biopharma industry and the patients we work to serve. HB 6870 is one such bill that if passed will do little to save money for patients but could put new treatments on hold.
Let me give you one of the most common examples of misinformation I hear when I am speaking about drug prices—the cost of insulin. So many people have said to me— “Insulin has been around for 100 years—why is the cost rising? Aren’t drug companies just price gouging?”
The one piece of that question that is factual is that the discovery of insulin and how it saves lives did happen over 100 years ago. However, the first insulin came from the pancreas of oxen and pigs. In the 1980’s and 1990’s the pharmaceutical industry spent hundreds of millions of dollars to create human insulin for the first time.
Beyond that, the companies improved upon mother nature to develop insulin analogs that are safer and longer acting.
The beauty of our system is that drugs eventually become generic, these companies now sell their insulin analogs for $35/month.
That is the very basis of how science works. One discovery is a launching pad for the next. That’s why we see progress in the ways we treat and, in some cases, better treat, prevent or cure cancer, heart disease, and auto immune disorders. Scientific research is not one and done—it’s a journey that is imperative to continue.
Patients depend on this innovation and Connecticut is home to much of this innovation. Setting arbitrary limits on pricing of medications will do little to bring down overall healthcare costs. The fact is that prescription medications only account for approximately eleven percent of overall healthcare costs. And they do more to keep patients out of the hospital, further bringing down costs.
I realize it’s a tough thing to do in Connecticut, home of the insurance industry, but lawmakers need to put the focus on Pharmacy Benefit Managers, or PBMs, an arm of the insurance industry that negotiate prices and actually set the prices for our prescriptions. The PBM industry’s profit margins have surged in the last decade, but their lack of transparency makes them a harder group to target.
The federal government has started to take notice of the mile high profits being generated by PBMs by marking up critical medications for treatments for life threatening diseases like cancer, HIV and heart disease. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission called on lawmakers to keep investigating PBMs as these practices continue to rise year after year.
Connecticut’s lawmakers—and more importantly Connecticut patients—would be better served putting the focus on the true drivers of drug prices and not penalize a thriving industry working to save lives.
Please reject HB 6870.
John LaMattina is the former head of research and development for Pfizer in Groton.