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At least 10 states are pondering a radical approach to putting a leash on soaring drug prices: force drug companies to explain how they arrived at the price of their costliest new drugs. The approach is radical not in the sense that it’s a new idea, but in the sense that it hasn’t been tried before. The idea is that the prices of some blockbuster new drugs—and some hard-to-get old drugs—are opaque. The only source for the cost of research and development or acquisition in the drug business is Big Pharma itself. The industry is anything but a reliable source, as we’ve reported before. (Michael Hiltzik, 6/20)

Total spending on prescription drugs in the United States rose more than 12 percent in 2015, to nearly $425 billion. Even with rebates and price breaks, the average patient share of a prescription filled through commercial insurance has risen more than 25 percent since 2010, to $44 per prescription last year, according to the research arm of the health care data provider IMS Health. In the public sector, the wake-up call came last year, after a breakthrough drug for hepatitis C was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (6/20)

When the pharmaceutical industry feels threatened by lawmakers or regulators, it often plays what I call the “Miracle Cure card.” Here’s how that works. The industry trots out one or more gravely ill people whose lives have been prolonged or even saved by a drug the industry spent an enormous amount of money developing. Then it warns that the pipeline of such miraculous drugs will shut down if the industry is forced to do what lawmakers (or regulators) are proposing. Take this example from a recent op-ed in the San Jose Mercury News about a bill (SB 1010) aimed at prescription drug prices: “If government bureaucrats proceed with such shortsighted measures, severely-ill patients like Corey Wood will never reach the finish line in their battle against cancer and other deadly conditions.” (Jon Healey, 6/20)

High prescription drug prices have become a big political issue. But what are politicians actually going to do about them? Sure, Congress is great at publicly shaming Martin Shkreli or former Valeant chief executive Mike Pearson for price gouging. But most solutions to slowing increases in drug prices are politically and practically difficult. Giving Medicare the ability to negotiate prices would mean tampering with one of America’s favorite laws, and would inevitably force the government to dictate what medicines seniors take. Outright laws against big price increases? Good luck with a free-market, GOP Congress. ObamaCare tried to institute systems to compare the effectiveness of different medicines. They’ve been ineffective. (Matthew Herper, 6/20)

Many Americans are experiencing a new pain at the pharmacy cash register due to skyrocketing medication costs. For many seniors and others on fixed incomes, that financial pain level is 11 on a scale of 1 to 10. Spending for Medicare’s outpatient prescription program grew by nearly 60 percent from 2007 through 2014, from $46 billion to $73 billion, according to the nonpartisan Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, or MedPAC. The increase has prompted the commission to recommend major changes that may protect seniors from extremely high costs, though some may have to pay more. (6/20)