Drug makers ask judge to stop preferred drug lists based on price
WASHINGTON (AP) – Drug companies asked a federal judge on Wednesday to stop states from limiting low-income patients’ access to more expensive medicines. A coalition of drug makers sued Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson for approving Michigan’s 6-month-old “preferred drug list” program for Medicaid recipients.
Medications can only get on the list if its manufacturer agrees to offer the drug at a steep discount. If doctors want to prescribe a drug not included on the list, they must get prior approval from the state.
“State programs that restrict access, we feel, violate federal law and can result in harmful consequences to the country’s most vulnerable patients,” said Jan Faiks, a lawyer for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America or PhRMA.
PhRMA wants U.S. District Court Judge John Bates to stop Michigan’s program and similar initiatives in other states. Florida and Louisiana also have the preferred drug list programs, while Connecticut, Missouri, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Vermont and West Virginia are in various stages of implementing such programs, according to PhRMA.
PhRMA attorneys said they are not opposed to preferred drug lists, but decisions about which medi-cines to include on the list must be based on medical reasons, not price. In Michigan, a panel of doctors and pharmacists helped decide which drugs would appear on the preferred drug list. State officials say they included a few drugs that weren’t discounted because there were no alternatives.
The states say limiting prescription drug costs is necessary to control skyrocketing Medicaid costs. Michigan spends about $1 billion a year on prescriptions for low-income patients, and the state expects its preferred drug list will save about $42 million this year.
When lawyers opposed to the cost-cutting plans said such plans can harm Medicaid patients by withholding their drug of choice, Bates questioned whether alternative cuts affecting Medicaid would be worse.
And the judge criticized Michigan for not providing a written explanation as to why specific drugs are kept off the preferred list. Michigan’s attorney, Charles Cooper, responded that any drug kept off the list “lacks special therapeutic advantage.”
Michigan’s Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear PHRMA’s arguments in a separate case on Sept. 5. Lawsuits also are pending in other states.
Bates did not say when he would make a decision in the case.
Spokesmen for the Department of Health and Human Services and the Michigan’s Department of Community Health declined to comment on the hearing Wednesday.
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