Azar: Drug pricing efforts coming soon
Joining President Donald Trump at his unveiling of the Administration's efforts to fight the opioid epidemic, Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar said Monday that his agency would be putting forth plans to tackle drug prices in the coming weeks.
"We're going to be rolling out, … in about a month, a whole slate of other proposals around how we decrease the price of drugs and how we bring discounts that the middlemen right now are getting; how those will go to our patients, to individuals." Azar said.
In his comments, Azar, the former head of Eli Lilly, highlighted the efforts that the Food and Drug Administration has been undertaking to bring more generics to market. "Last year, the FDA approved more generic drugs than it ever has in its history. And that brings prices down for patients, for the system, for everybody," he said.
So far this year, the FDA has approved 10 products that mark first-time generic entries, including generics for such drugs as Viread, Xyzal and Sensipar.
"You'll be seeing drug prices falling very substantially in the not-too-distant future, and it's going to be beautiful," Trump said before praising FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who has been spearheading the Generic Drug Action plan, among other efforts.
"We're going to be rolling out, … in about a month, a whole slate of other proposals around how we decrease the price of drugs and how we bring discounts that the middlemen right now are getting; how those will go to our patients, to individuals." Azar said.
In his comments, Azar, the former head of Eli Lilly, highlighted the efforts that the Food and Drug Administration has been undertaking to bring more generics to market. "Last year, the FDA approved more generic drugs than it ever has in its history. And that brings prices down for patients, for the system, for everybody," he said.
So far this year, the FDA has approved 10 products that mark first-time generic entries, including generics for such drugs as Viread, Xyzal and Sensipar.
"You'll be seeing drug prices falling very substantially in the not-too-distant future, and it's going to be beautiful," Trump said before praising FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who has been spearheading the Generic Drug Action plan, among other efforts.