Colorado House Votes next week on Prescription Drug Price Transparency Bill (HB18-1260)

CBSA continues to advocate against House Bill 1260, Prescription Drug Price Transparency. The bill could stifle bioscience innovation in Colorado and harm patients.

Colorado Bioscience Association (CBSA) and BIO advocate for True Transparency to help patients understand the role of manufacturers, insurers and Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) in determining out-of-pocket drug costs. HB18-1260 exclusively targets certain stakeholders while completely overlooking the influential role of middlemen who inflate costs for patients.

We urgently need your help!

The Colorado House of Representatives votes on the bill Monday morning, April 9. We’re asking for your help the legislature know that House Bill 18-1260, the Prescription Drug Price Transparency legislation, jeopardizes Colorado’s thriving biosciences community. If you haven’t done so, please utilize this form to email your legislator reminding them that this legislation jeopardizes Colorado’s thriving biosciences community and does not deliver value to patients as it promises.The vote is coming up quickly, so please contact your legislator today.

For more information on CBSA’s position on True Transparency click here.

I highly recommend Annie Farrel’s op-ed, Patients need substantive solutions, not empty gestures, to rein drug costs.

Steve VanNurden, president and CEO of the Fitzsimons Innovation Campus, also wrote an important op-ed in the Aurora Sentinel. 

Relevant News from the Week

Read more what drug manufactures are doing to address drug prices — “Wholesale drug prices may be rising, but rebates are taking a bigger bite”

This week STAT Plus reported that an analysis showed that brand name pharmaceutical companies raised their list prices by 5.5. percent in the fourth quarter last year, but “after subtracting various allowances, their net pricing fell by 1.1 percent.” According to Sector & Sovereign Research, the “average concession off the list price” was 41 percent, including “rebates paid to pharmacy benefit managers, allowances given to wholesalers, fees paid to retailers, provisions for returned goods, and the cost of any copay card or coupon programs.” Richard Evans of SSR said, “The data indicates that average rebates are growing faster than list prices.” To read the full article click here.