{"id":21230,"date":"2023-05-11T08:07:01","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T12:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=21230"},"modified":"2023-05-11T08:07:01","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T12:07:01","slug":"pbms-the-brokers-who-control-drug-prices-finally-get-washingtons-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=21230","title":{"rendered":"PBMs, the Brokers Who Control Drug Prices, Finally Get Washington\u2019s Attention"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>(By Arthur Allen for KFF Health News)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For two decades, patients and physicians eagerly awaited a lower-cost version of the world\u2019s bestselling drug, Humira, while its maker, AbbVie, fought off potential competitors by building a wall of more than 250 patents around it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the first Humira biosimilar \u2014 essentially a generic version \u2014 finally hit the market in January, it came with an unpleasant surprise. The biosimilar\u2019s maker, Amgen, launched two versions of the drug, which treats a host of conditions including rheumatoid arthritis. They were identical in every way but this: One was priced at about $1,600 for a two-week supply, 55% off Humira\u2019s list price. But the other was priced at around $3,300, only about 5% off. And OptumRx, one of three powerhouse brokers that determine which drugs Americans get, recommended option No. 2: the more expensive version.  Continue reading <a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/news\/article\/pharmacy-benefit-managers-prescription-drug-prices-congress-legislation\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/news\/article\/pharmacy-benefit-managers-prescription-drug-prices-congress-legislation\/\">here&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF \u2014 the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"17\" class=\"wp-image-21118\" style=\"width: 150px;\" src=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image.png\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image.png 500w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image-300x34.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><strong>Notice:<\/strong>&nbsp;The link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; medicarereport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link\u2019s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or medicarereport.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(By Arthur Allen for KFF Health News) For two decades, patients and physicians eagerly awaited a lower-cost version of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,21,10,15],"tags":[346,174,425,155],"class_list":["post-21230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fda","category-health-care-finance","category-legislative-update","category-part-dprescription-drugs","tag-drug-pricing","tag-legislation","tag-pbm-industry","tag-pharmaceuticals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21231,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21230\/revisions\/21231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}