The Pluses, Minuses of Drugmakers' Discount Cards

While discount cards can assist patients in covering out-of-pocket expenses, their use by drug manufacturers to steer users to more expensive drugs ultimately drives up costs in the healthcare system. Many coupons and discount cards are targeted at expensive brand name medications; while they allow the patient to afford their established copay, the insurer is paying the balances of a significantly more expensive drug than the generic or preferred brand – oftentimes, leading to higher premiums the following years. Further, these discounts are usually limited to a certain number of fills or restricted timeline and cannot be used by patients in federal health plans.

Read Drug Discovery & Development's article on it here.

GlaxoSmithKline CEO On Why Drugs Cost So Much

Sir Andrew Witty, the CEO of Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the sixth largest pharmaceutical company in the world, discusses the current period of ‘extreme challenge’ in the industry and acknowledges the disconnect between the global push for affordable healthcare and the current cost of needed medications. Specifically, he points to the U.S.’s lack of transparency requirements as a major driver for the issues that our country is facing today – an inability to determine the actual price of a drug makes it impossible to determine a realistic cost-benefit analysis for the system. Ultimately, he suggests, the system needs to balance cost, value and innovation to ensure shareholders remain invested and patients have access to the drugs they need.

Hear the podcast on it here.