WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) joined The Record with Greta van Susteren on Newsmax to discuss the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing examining pharmacy benefit managers’ (PBMs) role in the drug supply chain. Grassley is leading multiple bipartisan bills to lower drug costs for Americans. Each witness at yesterday’s hearing endorsed his?legislative work?to shine a light on PBMs.
Video and excerpts of Grassley’s remarks follow.
On the High Cost of Drugs in America vs. Other Countries:
“Whether you're dealing with the subject you want to talk to me about – PBMs – or whether you're dealing with what the president suggested yesterday or a couple of other ways of doing it, the idea is: why should the American consumer pay for most of the research for American drugs, even if we could do all the research?
“It seems like other countries, particularly the wealthy countries of Europe, as an example, ought to kick into that research by paying higher prices for their drugs over there.”
On the Need for PBM Transparency:
“Now [PBMs] have become so strong. They're the middle people between the drug companies and the consumer, and they decide prices. They decide rebates. They decide formularies, and what we're talking about for reforming PBMs is nobody knows what they do…we don't know whether they help the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies, the PBMs themselves, the local pharmacist or the consumer.
“And they ought to at least be helping the consumer. Now, I'm sure they're going to tell us, as we heard today in my committee, that they're helping the consumer, but we just don't know because nothing is transparent. And we need transparency because transparency brings accountability.”
On PBMs’ Business Practices:
“[PBMs are] also in this business. Can you believe it? They have their own mail order dispensary for pharmaceuticals as one example. So…they not only sell and make deals and negotiate, but they're also in the business. We don't know how much they make…that's why we need transparency.
“I think transparency is going to drive down drug prices when we find out where this money goes…I'm a firm believer that, if we get this stuff out in the public and you know how the deals are made and who's making the money, we're going to have cheaper drugs.”
-30-?