Big Drug Company Tactics Undermine Drug Pricing Reforms: The Case Against Orphan Drug Exemptions

To address ever-increasing prescription drug costs, federal and state policymakers have instituted reforms ranging from Medicare price negotiations to state Prescription Drug Affordability Boards (PDABs). But at every turn, big drug companies employ a barrage of tactics to undermine efforts to improve drug affordability in order to protect their outsized profits. That is exactly what is driving recent efforts to exempt certain drug classes, such as those for "orphan drugs," from pricing reforms. While big drug companies try to argue that these exemptions are aimed at supporting people dealing with rare diseases, the end result is quite the opposite: these exemptions only serve to keep prices high at the expense of people who most need access to affordable prescription drugs.