Colorado struggles to cut drugs costs as imports and price caps stall
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Colorado's efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs are being thwarted by the White House, pharmaceutical companies and its own review board.
Driving the news: The Polis administration's bid to import cheaper medicines from Canada has been stalled by the Biden administration and drugmakers.
- Colorado's year-old application to the federal government to import drugs remains unanswered and none of the 23 drug companies approached by Polis' health agency have agreed to participate in import plans directly, KFF Health News reports.
- The state has asked the White House to intervene to help, but so far it is refusing.
- "Generally, the challenges that remain are outside state authority and rely on action by FDA and/or drug manufacturers," a Dec. 1 state report reads.
Moreover, the state's new Prescription Drug Affordability Board declined Friday to set price caps on brand-name cystic fibrosis drug Trikafta, despite its average cost of $234,000 a year, determining it is already affordable because of existing subsidies.
- The monthslong review — the first of its kind in the nation — is a major setback for Gov. Jared Polis and advocates who balked at the cost and drugmaker Vertex profiting off a life-saving medication.
What they're saying: "Patients who are just trying to live shouldn't have to spend hours negotiating with drug companies, begging to afford the drugs they need to live," Yolanda Bogaert, a Wheat Ridge nephrologist and a member of the Committee to Protect Health Care, said in a statement after the board's meeting.
- "And consumers across Colorado shouldn't have to shoulder the burden of higher health care premiums due to greedy pharmaceutical corporations."
The other side: "The board made a decision in response to concerns raised by patients who could be negatively affected by government price setting," said Reid Porter, a spokesperson for the industry group PhRMA, in a statement.
The intrigue: The Biden administration defended the delays in reviewing Colorado's import application for 112 high-cost drugs.
- FDA spokesperson Cherie Duvall-Jones told KFF that the agency has not determined that consumers will save money through such programs without encountering public health risks.
Of note: The Trump administration supported drug importation, saying it could be done safely, but Colorado still must negotiate with drugmakers, which oppose selling them in the U.S. at Canadian prices.
What's next: The state plans to resubmit its FDA import application in early 2024.