Profitceuticals
While public and private interest groups wring their hands about the ever-increasing cost of drugs, one drug list publisher quietly wields monumental impact on pricing. First DataBank, a unit of Hearst Corp., publishes a benchmark list of pharmaceutical prices that health plans and state Medicaid programs use as a guide.
As reported in the Wall Street Journal on Oct. 6, First DataBank reached a legal settlement in a case of price gouging. Implicated was McKesson, who is the only company that First DataBank "surveys" to arrive at price averages. As a result of the settlement, prices on many of the most common drugs will be lowered.
This is an egregious example of unmonitored pricing, one which when addressed does more to help alleviate pricing than all the excuses of pharma executives.
Posted by Shawn Whalen on October 8, 2006 at 4:34 PM
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