The head of the Food and Drug Administration said far too many patients find themselves in “a financial no-man’s land” because of shouldering the costs of cancer medications.
The comments are the latest attack from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb on drug prices and insurers.
“Rising co-pays and co-insurance are pushing far too many patients into a financial no man’s land where sometimes they must literally choose between exhausting their bank accounts, or going without access to potentially effective treatments,” Gottlieb said in prepared remarks for a speech at the 2018 Community Oncology Conference Thursday outside Washington.
[Related: Trump administration moves to expand access to cancer tests]
Gottlieb said cancer patients are disproportionately shouldering the cost of cancer medicines.
“The perverse reality of the market today is that cancer treatment comes with its own financial toxicity,” he said in prepared remarks.
Gottlieb said the FDA couldn’t regulate drug prices. However, it is taking an interest in the matter because “if anti-competitive forces and profit taking across the drug supply chain are pushing effective treatments out of the reach of patients, the full benefits of innovation to improve public health are not being realized.”
This is the latest jab at the insurance industry over high prices.
Gottlieb said during a speech last month that pharmacy benefit managers, which oversee drug plans for employer health plans and unions, and insurers are “playing a shell game” to keep prices high. He said that PBMs and insurers aren’t passing along to consumers enough of rebates that they negotiated with drug makers.
Insurers and pharmacy benefit managers respond that the issue is high list prices set by the drug maker.
