Prescription Drug Prices Could Lead to ‘Bloody Backlash,’ Business Week Columnist Writes

A "powerful backlash" against "soaring drug costs" has led the pharmaceutical industry to "top the enemies' list of everyone from insurers to state legislators," John Carey writes in a Business Week op-ed. Carey notes that states are banding together to form "buyers' clubs" to negotiate pharmaceutical discounts, government regulators are investigating allegations that drug firms have blocked the introduction of generic medicines and federal lawmakers are debating legislation that would obtain discounts on pharmaceuticals for seniors. And the "[c]lashes over who gets access to costly drugs and who picks up the tab are bound to intensify as more people turn to expensive new medicines," Carey writes, adding that new cancer drugs currently in the pipeline "will push costs even higher." Carey states that health care in the United States "is inevitably headed for a crisis" brought on by the high cost of medicines. "Either the United States will have to spend a far bigger chunk of the [gross domestic product] on health care or begin the agonizing process of explicitly rationing care. Today's fights are early battles in a much larger war ahead," Carey concludes (Carey, Business Week, 5/28).