With high drug prices remaining an ongoing concern for U.S. politicians, Roche is considering following in the footsteps of some of its peers with a direct-to-consumer (DTC) model to cut out the middlemen.<\/p>\n
Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and innovative drugmakers have long blamed<\/a> each other for high U.S. drug prices, with pharma companies calling out the so-called \u201cmiddlemen\u201d for prioritizing drugs with higher costs in order to collect higher rebates.\u00a0<\/p>\n About 50% of the money spent on drugs in the U.S. healthcare system goes straight to PBMs instead of the companies that create the medicines, Roche CEO Thomas Schinecker called out in a press<\/a> conference on Thursday.<\/p>\n The CEO suggested that the U.S. chop drug prices in half, \u201ctake out these people in the middle\u201d who don\u2019t contribute \u201cat all\u201d to innovation and reap the benefits without having to take risks.\u00a0<\/p>\n One example he pointed to is that of Roche\u2019s multiple sclerosis med Ocrevus, which was priced at a 25% discount to the existing standard of care at launch but ended up being more expensive for patients because of PBM dynamics.<\/p>\n Bringing the drugs directly to the consumer could be a solution to positively impact pricing for patients \u201cwithout destroying innovation,\u201d Schinecker added on a separate Thursday call with investors, noting that the company has discussed the matter with the U.S. government and its Department of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n