ACP: Drug pricing must not be choice between innovation, affordability

The American College of Physicians recommended transparency, competition and value assessment to lower prescription drug prices, according to a press release from the organization.

The organization participated in an event for the Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing. Robert P. Doherty, senior vice president of governmental affairs and public policy for ACP, made the comments on behalf of the organization at as part of a panel at the Newseum.

"As internal medicine physicians who specialize in the treatment of adults and adolescents, many with chronic illnesses, ACP members see on a daily basis how the rising cost of prescriptions causes their patients not to keep up with the recommended medication schedule or even forgo filling their prescriptions," he said in the release.

According to the release, the Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing is a nonpartisan coalition of organizations that includes pharmacists, health plans, consumers and physicians. The campaign announced its policy platform at the event, which centered on greater pricing transparency, increasing competition and incorporating value assessments, according to the release.

ACP addressed some of these policies in a recent paper that called for transparency and other changes in order to slow the rising costs of prescription drugs.

"We must not allow the issue to be defined as a choice between innovation on one hand and affordable drugs on the other," Doherty said in the release. "As our coalition is proposing today, we can, and must, do both, by continuing to support the pharmaceutical industry's vital role in research and development of new life-saving medications, while introducing market-based policies to ensure that results of such research are not priced so high that patients can't benefit from them."