Proposals of State Legislation Concerning Drug Pricing
Panel
Panel 13: Drug Cost and Access IV
Moderator
Wendy Soe-McKeeman, Vice President of State Programs, California Association of Health Plans & Niraj Chaudhary, Associate University Librarian, University of the Pacific
Description
The development and distribution of pharmaceuticals from conception to market is a complicated and highly regulated process in the United States. The pricing of pharmaceuticals is also complicated and at times opaque. Moreover, many critique the high price of pharmaceuticals. In examining these processes and the high price of pharmaceuticals, some commentators have pointed to some solutions, including improving transparency in pricing; increasing competition in several different relevant markets, such as pharmaceutical benefit managers, distribution and manufacturing; importation of pharmaceuticals into the U.S. from foreign countries; increasing regulation on pharmaceutical benefit managers; and utilizing rate setting or other forms of price regulation. State legislators have proposed legislation capturing these solutions and some legislation has been enacted. However, the question has arisen as to whether these additional solutions only create more complexity in an incredibly complex system--could it be too much of a good thing. Framed another way, do the benefits of this mass of potential legislation outweigh the costs. Indeed, this could be exactly the way a set of prescriptions to high drug prices at the national level, while balancing innovation and access concerns, is developed because of public choice issues at the federal level. However, public choice issues likely exist at the state level as well. This presentation reviews data and analyses by the National Academy of State Health Policy and raises some of the potential benefits and costs of creating 50 different laws concerning issues such as transparency, rate setting, pharmaceutical benefit managers and importation.
Location
Pacific McGeorge School of Law, Lecture Hall, 3200 Fifth Ave., Sacramento, CA
Proposals of State Legislation Concerning Drug Pricing
Pacific McGeorge School of Law, Lecture Hall, 3200 Fifth Ave., Sacramento, CA
The development and distribution of pharmaceuticals from conception to market is a complicated and highly regulated process in the United States. The pricing of pharmaceuticals is also complicated and at times opaque. Moreover, many critique the high price of pharmaceuticals. In examining these processes and the high price of pharmaceuticals, some commentators have pointed to some solutions, including improving transparency in pricing; increasing competition in several different relevant markets, such as pharmaceutical benefit managers, distribution and manufacturing; importation of pharmaceuticals into the U.S. from foreign countries; increasing regulation on pharmaceutical benefit managers; and utilizing rate setting or other forms of price regulation. State legislators have proposed legislation capturing these solutions and some legislation has been enacted. However, the question has arisen as to whether these additional solutions only create more complexity in an incredibly complex system--could it be too much of a good thing. Framed another way, do the benefits of this mass of potential legislation outweigh the costs. Indeed, this could be exactly the way a set of prescriptions to high drug prices at the national level, while balancing innovation and access concerns, is developed because of public choice issues at the federal level. However, public choice issues likely exist at the state level as well. This presentation reviews data and analyses by the National Academy of State Health Policy and raises some of the potential benefits and costs of creating 50 different laws concerning issues such as transparency, rate setting, pharmaceutical benefit managers and importation.
Speaker Bio
Professor Michael Mireles has taught over 10 different courses and currently teaches intellectual property law, Property and Wills &Trusts. He has published papers in numerous journals including, Cardozo Law Review , University of Maine Law Review, University of Missouri-Kansas City Law Review, Southern Methodist University Law Review, University of Denver Law Review, University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, University of Utah Law Review, Indiana Law Review, Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal and University of Minnesota Journal of Law, Science and Technology. Professor Mireles was also an associate attorney at Downey Brand, practicing intellectual property and commercial law, and was a law clerk to Circuit Judge S. Jay Plager of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington DC.
Professor Mireles taught Cross Border Trade in Intellectual Property in the George Washington University Law School summer program, part of the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center, at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property Law, Competition Law and Tax Law in Munich, Germany. He has also taught at the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law; Shanghai University of Finance and Economics; Zhejiang Gongshang University; and University of Salzburg. Professor Mireles received his JD from University of the Pacific, Order of the Coif, and LLM in intellectual property law from George Washington University Law School, with highest honors. He has served on the board of directors of several professional and community organizations, as President of the Asian Bar Association of Sacramento, and was appointed to the City of Sacramento Racial Profiling Commission by the Mayor of Sacramento.