U.S. must contain rising drug costs

We’re glad to see that South Carolina has joined a federal lawsuit accusing six large drug companies of conspiring to inflate prices and leverage the market for two drugs used to treat infections and diabetes.

S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson announced Sunday that South Carolina will join 39 other states in claiming that the six companies “entered into illegal conspiracies in order to unreasonably restrain trade, artificially inflate and manipulate prices and reduce competition.” The lawsuit alleges that the shady deals among the companies caused the price of the drugs to skyrocket, sparking customer outrage across the nation.

Once the patent period runs out for high-priced branded drugs, the usual trajectory is that generic versions of the same drug are produced and offered at lower prices. As more companies offer generic products, the prices can continue to fall.

But in the case of the two drugs specifically cited in the lawsuit – doxycycline hyclate, a delayed-release antibiotic, and glyburide, an oral diabetes medication – the opposite occurred. Prices of generic versions rose dramatically.

Officials at the six pharmaceutical firms have been accused of conspiring via emails, phone calls and text messages, as well as face-to-face meetings at industry trade shows, customer conferences and other events to fix and maintain prices of the two drugs. Unfortunately, the practice apparently is not unusual.

The complaint issued by the 40 states notes that “prices for dozens of generic drugs have uncharacteristically risen – some have skyrocketed – for no apparent reason.”

For customers across the nation, costs have “doubled, tripled or, in some cases, increased up to 1,000 percent or more, “ according to the complaint. Tens of thousands of lower-income Americans no doubt have had to choose between buying the medicine they need and buying food or other necessities.

This is both tragic and infuriating. The giant drug companies have put profit ahead of the health of their customers, and, it appears, have illegally conspired to do so.

That is far from the fair competition that is supposed to keep drug prices in check. It also is evidence that allowing the so-called free market to govern drug prices doesn’t work.

This also points to a serious shortcoming in the congressional blueprint presented by House Republicans this week to replace the Affordable Care Act. The proposal contains no specific effort to rein in drug prices.

As a candidate for president, Donald Trump was harshly critical of pharmaceutical companies for their pricing. He accused them of “getting away with murder.” On the campaign trail, Trump frequently noted that, as the largest buyer of drugs in the world, the U.S. could force lower prices through bidding.

But the health care plan from House Republicans does not address drug prices. That’s either an oversight or another concession to the big pharmaceuticals.

We hope Wilson and his cohorts in other states are successful in suing the colluding drug companies, but more must be done to end this outrage.

This story was originally published March 8, 2017 at 4:26 PM with the headline "U.S. must contain rising drug costs."