Prescription Drug Affordability Boards WON’T Deliver Savings

Michigan’s SB 483-485 would allow government bureaucrats to set prices for medicines, harming patients and stifling innovation.

State legislators in Michigan are considering a dangerous health care proposal. On the surface, a Prescription Drug Affordability Board sounds like a reasonable way to lower costs for patients at the pharmacy counter. But in reality, similar Boards in other states have not saved patients a single dollar at the pharmacy counter. Instead, it threatens to upend Michigan’s thriving life sciences industry and put patients at risk of losing access to critical medicines.

CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS AND TELL THEM TO OPPOSE THIS LEGISLATION

THE BACKGROUND

Michigan’s biopharmaceutical industry plays a major role in the research and development of new treatments and cures that patients need.

  • During the COVID-19 pandemic, many Michigan-based companies, big and small, contributed to the development and manufacturing of vaccines, treatments, diagnostics, and testing that kept our families safe and healthy.
  • Michigan’s life sciences industry drives our local, state, and national economy by supporting 44,000 jobs across 2,400 facilities in the state.

THE PROBLEM

SB 483-485 aims to create a Prescription Drug Affordability Board, allowing the government to set prices for prescription medicines.

  • The creation of the Board does not guarantee that patients will see savings at the pharmacy counter. Instead, the legislation hopes to decrease overall costs to insurers and the health care system, while patients pay the price.
  • The Board would give unelected bureaucrats the power to decide what medicines patients in Michigan will be able to access. When the government stands between patients and their medicines, many people with rare and chronic diseases could lose access to the specialty medications they rely on.

These types of policies are also known to stifle innovation, leading to diminished research efforts and fewer new treatments and cures for patients.

THE SOLUTION

Michigan lawmakers must say NO to the Prescription Drug Affordability Board.

Michigan BIO is aligned with the goal of lowering costs for patients at the pharmacy counter, but we support a holistic and systemwide approach that would address the driving forces behind high out of pocket costs rather than misguided price controls.

Please reach out to your representatives and tell them to support patients and the biosciences by opposing SB 483-485.

MORE INFORMATION

  • MichBio President Stephen Rapundalo explains the problems with Prescription Drug Affordability Boards in a recent episode of the MIRS Monday Podcast. Listen here.
  • MichBio Myth v Fact White Paper. Read Here.