Trump drug pricing plan: AllergyKids founder well aware of ‘perverse’ system
AllergyKids founder Robyn O'Brien is well acquainted with a prescription drug pricing system that Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar called “perverse” during the White House’s announcement of its strategy.
“Whether we are talking about food allergies or cancer or diabetes or any of these conditions, it doesn’t matter what side of the aisle we are on,” she told Liz Claman during a FOX Business interview on Friday. “It’s impacting absolutely every single American family.”
Two years ago, O’Brien helped awaken America to the skyrocketing price of EpiPen.
At the White House announcement, President Donald Trump highlighted the premium Americans pay for prescription drugs.
“In some cases, medicine that cost a few dollars in a foreign country cost hundreds of dollars in America for the same pill with the same ingredients in the same package made in the same plant, and that is unacceptable,” he said at the White House.
Secretary Azar said companies will be forced to list the price of their drugs in ads so consumers can make informed choices.
“If you can get the information to consumers, help them understand with their doctors what their therapy choices are, it will dramatically change the game,” Rx Savings CEO Michael Rea told Claman on “Countdown to the Closing Bell.
The AllergyKids founder said there’s a lack of transparency in the pricing structure between government agencies, hospitals, lobbyists and drug companies.
“We’re just completely running blind, I think, as consumers,” O'Brien said.