An analysis commissioned by Washington, D.C.’s Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) recently confirmed that no correlation exists between prices and rebates contrary to claims that drug costs are proportional to consumer rebates and discounts.
PCMA ordered the study to clarify the relationship, between pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which represent employers, unions and government health plans, and manufacturers’ listed drug prices, according to a PCMA press release. U.S. health stakeholder companies often hire PBMs to handle promotion of generic products and arrange discount incentives on brand-name medications.
Health care consulting firm Visante of St. Paul, Minnesota, conducted the analysis and determined that manufacturers tend to increase prices regardless of rebate programs; that price hikes for items featuring higher rebates tend to remain on the low side; and conversely, higher price increases occur in product categories with low rebate amounts.
The study found that there is no correlation between drug manufacturers’ prices and the dollar amount of rebates arranged with PBMs.
“This study debunks the notion that the prices drugmakers set are contingent on the rebates they negotiate with PBMs,” PCMA president and CEO Mark Merritt said in the release. “Ironically, many higher priced drugs involve little or no such rebates.”
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