Tapinto Phillipsburg: Lowering Drug Costs a Priority for 2025

By Jeanette Hoffman, Patients Come First New Jersey’s Executive Director

As the new session of Congress begins, lowering prescription drug prices for New Jersey patients should be a top priority. This includes passing pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reform as soon as possible. 

PBMs are the middlemen of the prescription drug industry, pocketing savings meant for consumers and driving up costs for patients, according to a recent FTC lawsuit.  For far too long, PBMs have been allowed to exploit a broken system to prioritize profits over patients.

In the last session of Congress, legislation that would have required PBMs to provide more transparency on the rebates they negotiate, as well as what they pay for drugs and how much they compensate pharmacies, fell short of passing the final reconciliation package.

However, it’s clear that PBM reform is widely supported by patients and voters alike.   In fact, according to a Morning Consult poll, more than two-thirds (69%) of registered voters agree that Congress should consider legislation to reform pharmacy benefit managers’ role and actions in healthcare to be “must-pass legislation”.

And the in-coming Administration also supports reigning in prescription drug middlemen. Recently President-elect Trump blasted the industry at a recent news conference at Mar-a-Lago, after saying that Americans pay too much for drugs.

Here in New Jersey, a group of New Jersey lawmakers and independent pharmacists announced they would also spearhead additional legislation to address the impact of PBMs and the crisis of rising drug costs in New Jersey.

Read the full LTE in Tapinto Phillipsburg.