A prescription drug affordability board is our best shot to lower drug costs

In June 2017, a few weeks after his 26th birthday, I lost my son Alec to diabetic ketoacidosis that came on because he was rationing his insulin. Alec’s death was completely preventable and driven by the astronomical price of insulin, which he and so many other Type-1 diabetics need to survive. The tragedy of losing Alec has propelled me to fight so that no other family has to suffer the horrors of losing a loved one due to the high costs of prescription drugs.

The U.S. pays more for drugs than any other country in the world, and it does not have to be this way. High drug costs affect people and families across the state, regardless of age, race, zip code and political affiliation.

Minnesotans deserve a better deal.

We need to do more to bring down costs and rein in excessive price increases by greedy pharmaceutical companies. There’s not a single answer, since the high costs of prescription drugs result from many factors along the supply chain and health care system. It will take a lot of work, and despite heavy industry opposition, Minnesota has made progress, including passing the Alec Smith Emergency Insulin Act — named for my son — which has had a ripple effect across the nation. We can’t stop here.

From 2019-2020, I co-chaired the Attorney General’s Advisory Task Force on Lowering Pharmaceutical Drug Prices, which focused on finding solutions to this problem, which affects so many Minnesotans. The task force brought together patients, experts and legislators from both sides of the aisle to study and recommend the best policies to bring transparency, accountability, and cost relief to Minnesotans.

The number one recommendation of the nationally awarded task force was to create a Prescription Drug Affordability Board, or PDAB. This board would work like our Public Utilities Commission to serve as a watchdog and check the monopoly power of drug companies. The PDAB would set upper payment limits for certain high-cost drugs, so that patients can better afford the drugs they need. The board would be focused on patient affordability, and no one in the state, whether they have health insurance or not, would pay more than the upper payment limit on certain drugs.

Lawmakers have been hearing our voices and are advancing PDAB legislation.

And, once again, the pharmaceutical industry has launched a series of scare tactics meant to cause confusion and discourage action on drug costs. Right now Big Pharma is running a full-on campaign against the PDAB bills, and managed to slip a poison pill into the Senate version of the bill.

The trade group PhRMA and its allies have paid for full-page newspaper ads, put up billboards, and continue to hide behind “patient groups.” This is the same heartless industry that — after fighting to block the Alec Smith Emergency Insulin Act from passage — filed a lawsuit against the state in an attempt to stop it.

We can’t let the pharmaceutical industry continue to dominate the conversation on drug costs. The Minnesota House just passed a bill that would create the nation’s strongest Prescription Drug Affordability Board, and we must keep the pressure on our lawmakers to not cave in to the industry with exemptions, delays and other tactics that would weaken the bill.

Several states have already passed Prescription Drug Affordability Boards, and Minnesota is well-positioned to learn from their experiences to create a strong and effective board. The upper payment limit is a tool commonly used in the health care system. Applying that tool to prescription drugs will reduce patient costs — no one in the state will pay above the upper payment limit for certain drugs.

In fact, an upper payment limit is designed to stop the bad, anti-consumer market behavior from pharmacy benefit managers (which are drug middlemen) and others that Big Pharma is currently blaming for high costs. The upper payment limit will prevent a pharmacy benefit manager, insurer, or any other party from benefiting from price reductions without passing them along to patients.

In the final weeks of the legislative session, lawmakers should expect PhRMA and its allies will continue to point fingers and blame other industries for their role in high prescription drug costs. The bottom line is that we know our pharmaceutical drug cost system is complex and convoluted, and that is precisely why we need a PDAB that focuses on affordability for patients and cuts through the dysfunction of the entire system.

I’m proud of our work on the task force that identified PDAB as a leading solution for patients.

In honor of my son Alec, I urge lawmakers and all residents to side with Minnesotans, not Big Pharma, and create a drug affordability board that will lower drug costs and save lives.

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