BioCentury
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Clintons focusing on drug prices

June 17, 2015 1:01 AM UTC

Former President Bill Clinton urged biotech executives to do a better job explaining drug pricing and value during a speech and question-and-answer session held Monday in conjunction with the Biotechnology Industry Organization's annual convention. Speaking in Philadelphia at an event BIO helped organize as a "precursor" to its meeting, Clinton said the hepatitis C drugs Sovaldi sofosbuvir and Harvoni ledispasvir/sofosbuvir from Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) are examples of both the promise of specialty drugs and the difficulty Americans have paying for those drugs.

"He did not beat us up on pricing, but he said we have not done a good job of explaining costs to the American public," BIO Chairman Ron Cohen told BioCentury. "He said first of all we have to communicate better about what we do as an industry, and particularly about value." Clinton also said that "society as a whole needs to find ways to distribute the costs" of innovative drugs because it is not acceptable for patients to be unable to access breakthroughs because they can't afford to pay large copays, Cohen reported. ...