Legislative Efforts in Drug Pricing

Tom Kraus, vice president, government affairs for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) discusses legislators' top concerns with drug pricing and what they're doing to solve the problem. This video was filmed at the ASHP 54th Midyear Clinical Meeting & Exhibition in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Tom Kraus: Legislators are very focused on drug pricing right now. That is something that has come up in the presidential campaigns, it came up in 2016 as well. The president has made that an issue around health care that he is very focused on, and I think that’s all a good thing to bring attention to the issue. I think that we will get some bipartisan legislation on the topic. But, you know, there’s also challenges. There are competing bills that Democrats and Republicans have introduced. The 2 houses of Congress have not agreed on a final solution. So, it’s really going to be a challenge to reach that end-goal, but I think we’re likely to see some solutions, particularly around getting better access to generic drugs, making sure that there aren’t barriers, be they patent restrictions or other restrictions that would prevent generic drugs from getting to market. And I think that that’s a good step in the right direction. That’s consistent with what ASHP has been advocating for.