FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 6, 2021
Contact: Sarah Shelson
sshelson@riesterpublicaffairs.com
WILCOX STATEMENT ON BIDEN DRUG SPEECH
Build Back Better Offers No Guarantee to Lower Patient Costs
WASHINGTON — Patients Rising Executive Director Terry Wilcox today released the following statement regarding today’s speech by President Biden on drug prices:
“The high cost of insulin is an enormous burden for diabetic patients. We work constantly and tirelessly for lower insulin prices on behalf of the large population of our members who have or care for someone with diabetes. However, we are disappointed in the President’s and Capitol Hill’s hasty and short effort to address the real cause of prescription drug prices. The truth of the matter is, if the rebates are actually passed to the patients, insulin could be close to free in this country.
Blaming one piece of the pie for high drug prices is just plain lazy, when there are so many others included in the price for each drug – people who have their hands out to profit off the backs of our sickest Americans.
The bottom line: Until you address rebates and PBM kickbacks, insulin patients will continue to suffer at the pharmacy counter. The rebate kickbacks for insulin is 75-80% of the list price, while net prices hover at 15-20% and continue to decline.
The only hope for patients to see lower costs on prescription drugs, including insulin, was within the Rebate Rule. By passing rebates onto patients at the pharmacy counter, many patients could see insulin costs lower than $35 per month. But that hope was obliterated when Congress threw out the rule in order to pocket those rebates for itself at the expense of patient health.
This is not patient-centric legislation. This is government greed.”
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