TV Drug Ads To Include Prices—Latest Report

A high ranking U.S. health official has disclosed that prescription drugs advertised on TV will need to list prices. This was an action undertaken by the Health and Human Services in order to appease public demand for controlling drug costs.

The Health and Human Services Secretary, Alex Azar stated that regulations for pharmaceutical companies to reveal list prices of drugs advertised on TV were complete. The cost of monthly requirement of these drugs had to exceed $35.

The prices were supposed to be shown in text as the TV commercials neared completion alongside the listing of side effects. The new regulation would be effective very soon by this summer and would include every brand name drugs under the purview of Medicaid and Medicare. This implied that it would cover almost the entire range of medications.

The move did not go down well with the drug industry as companies found it preferable to indicate the prices on their websites.

Azar opined that if the drug industry was shy of disclosing the prices during the TV ads for fear of scaring likely patients then they needed to reduce their prices. Every American patient was entitled to transparency from drug companies, he felt.

However, the Democrats were very skeptical in this context and felt that it would invoke no such reaction from the drug companies and insisted that Medicare should take the lead to bargain on behalf of the patients.

Azar further stated the possibility of Trump administration allowing Americans to obtain lesser priced prescription drugs from overseas if they were proved to be safe and truly enabled patients to spend less for their medications.

As per latest figures from the government, the prices of drugs most commonly featured in TV commercials varied from a monthly $488 to $16,938 or for the normal therapy period.

About: Ankit Kadam

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