WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today, U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) pressed Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) on how their anti-competitive practices have raised costs for Vermont patients by undermining competition in the prescription drug supply chain. Senator Welch also discussed how PBMs’ lack of transparency has crushed and driven community pharmacies in Vermont and around the country out of business.
“We only have 126 independent pharmacies in Vermont. They’ve been going out of business left and right. In my view, they’re absolutely critical to the community. Main street’s getting devastated—this is especially true in rural America,” said Senator Welch. “Mr. Scott, I want to ask you—how in the world can a business survive if they sell the product at what is an agreed upon price, and then you reimburse them at a lower price months after the fact? How in the world is that a fair business model that makes it at all possible for our community pharmacies to survive?”
Mr. Juan Carlos Scott, President & Chief Executive Officer, Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, answered: “We all have the same goal, Senator. We need a healthy retail pharmacy market, because if we can’t serve patients with those access points…”
Senator Welch responded: “You know what? We don’t have a healthy retail pharmacy market—it doesn’t exist. They’re under incredible pressure, and we can be blind to it…I want an answer of how we deal with Mr. McDonough, how we deal with Jeff Hochberg, and how we deal with all of these community pharmacies in our small towns throughout the country.”
Watch the exchange between Senator Welch and Pharmaceutical Care Management Association President and CEO Juan Carlos Scott below:
Senator Welch has championed bipartisan initiatives to lower prescription drug prices for Vermonters. Senators Welch and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) recently introduced the Fair Prescription Drug Prices for Americans Act, bipartisan legislation that would offer relief for millions of patients by prohibiting pharmaceutical companies from selling drugs in the United States at higher prices than an international average, ending the practice of forcing Americans to pay the world’s highest prices for medications.
In March, Senators Welch and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) led their colleagues in introducing the bipartisan Protecting Pharmacies in Medicaid Act to crack down on PBMs’ use of ‘spread pricing,’—charging Medicaid more than PBMs pay pharmacies for a drug—which drives up costs for Medicaid and short-changes pharmacies that are already struggling to stay in business. The bill would save Medicaid an estimated $2 billion over 10 years.
Last Congress, Senator Welch and Sens. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) led the introduction of bipartisan, bicameral legislation to streamline prescription drug patent litigation, encourage fair market competition, and lower prescription drug prices.
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