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Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle universally agree the system for pricing drugs in America is broken, and while there is some bipartisan momentum to address the problem, Washington has yet to pass any legislation that will have a meaningful impact on bringing down prices and giving consumers relief at the pharmacy counter. Meanwhile, states are bearing the burden and are growing frustrated with drug corporations doubling and tripling prices for no reason. Some states — including Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maine and Oregon — are trying to take control of their own fate with an innovative way to make drugs more affordable and accessible: by treating pharmaceuticals as a utility. (DeMarco, 7/1)

In the ongoing conversation about high drug prices in the United States, some loud voices argue that the solution is to allow Medicare to negotiate prices directly with manufacturers. The Congressional Budget Office and others say this would lead to the exclusion of some drugs from coverage, require physicians to obtain prior authorization more often than they already do, and impose more cost sharing on patients — strategies that would keep patients from accessing medications they can benefit from.That doesn’t have to be the case. Germany’s approach to negotiating drug prices shows that it can be done successfully without limiting access. (James C. Robinson, Dimitra Panteli and Patricia Ex, 6/27)

AbbVie Inc.’s  $63 billion purchase of Botox maker Allergan Inc. is the third super-sized drug deal announced in the past 14 months, and the second just this year after Bristol-Myers’s Squibb Co.’s even bigger $74 billion purchase of Celgene Corp. These huge combinations are no fluke: In the last decade, the biopharmaceutical industry has pursued more $40 billion-plus transactions than any other sector, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. These big deals happen for a reason. Drug development is difficult, unpredictable and time consuming; even when the billions pharmaceutical companies spend on R&D or strategic purchases and partnerships bear fruit with top-sellers, those blockbusters still face the prospect of expiring patents and an eventual decline in sales. That pressures drugmakers into bigger acquisitions, in spite of their mixed track record and inherently risky and complicated nature. In AbbVie's case, the company needs to find a replacement for its $19 billion-a-year arthritis drug Humira, while Bristol-Myers is too dependent on two key drugs. (Max Nisen, 6/26)

AARP is fighting to lower prescription drug costs – for everyone.  We have pursued new laws that would get generic drugs to market faster, allow the safe importation of medicines from Canada, and permit Medicare to negotiate drug prices for seniors.  We also are advocating for an out-of-pocket cap to improve the Medicare Part D drug benefit we helped pass in 2003. (Brad Anderson, 7/2)