The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) proposal to require pharmaceutical companies to include drug prices in consumer advertising has led to more questions than answers, according to STAT News.
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, told STAT News that the agency is establishing a working group to consider whether the government can legally require price disclosures and how the practice would benefit patients, among other questions.
According to Dr. Gottlieb, these questions include: "Does the disclosure of the price information provide appropriate balance to the consumer – like, is the information about the cost of the drug and the accessibility of the drug important at the time that they're seeing the advertisement, in order to provide appropriate disclosure and fair balance in the advertisement?"
The FDA has not yet determined which price should be included in the advertising – the medication's list price or another measure. "We're going to look at what a framework would be for the disclosure of price information," Dr. Gottlieb said.
He added that the proposal is just one of more than 50 actions that the Trump administration is considering to lower drug prices.
Source: STAT News, May 18, 2018.