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States with Transparency Laws Monitor Prices of Potential COVID-19 Drug Treatments

Absent sufficient evidence from clinical trials that proves a variety of drugs are effective against COVID-19, many states are providing guidance to limit their use and have begun monitoring them for price increases and shortages. Building on experience from states’ drug price transparency laws, policymakers now have tools to track these drug costs and identify any price spikes that may occur.

Since 2017, nine states (CA, CT, ME, NV, NH, OR, TX, VT, and WA) have passed drug pricing transparency laws that require data from manufacturers related to drug price increases and high-priced new drug launches. Officials in Oregon are building on the capacities of their drug price transparency programs to track changes in the prices of drugs identified as potential treatments for COVID-19.

Because reporting directly from manufacturers is required only once a year, Oregon is using monthly reports from Medi-Span to monitor prices of these potential treatments in the interim.  If price spikes do occur, manufacturers will have to submit justifications for those price increases under states’ transparency laws. The National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) will soon release additional policy resources for states enabling enforcement action if price gouging is detected.

The table below provides an overview of some of the drugs currently being evaluated as potential treatments for COVID-19. (For a full list of drugs with ongoing clinical trials for COVID-19 treatment, Transparimed, a non-profit that advocates for greater disclosure of clinical trial data, has created a COVID-19 clinical trials tracker.)

Drugs Under Evaluation for the Treatment of COVID-19
Drug Manufacturer1 Drug Class Price2
Remdesivir Gilead Antiviral Investigational drug not yet on the market.
Hydroxychloroquine3 Multiple Antimalarial, also used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis 32 cents/200 mg tablet
Chloroquine Phosphate3 Multiple Antimalarial $9.84/500 mg tablet
AzithromycinCommon brands: Zithromax Z-Pak, AzaSite, Zithromax TRI-PAK, Zmax, and Zithromax (Used in combination with hydroxychloroquine) Multiple Antibiotic  $0.66/250 mg tablet
LopinavirBrand: Kaletra (Typically used in combination with ritonavir) AbbVie HIV protease inhibitor  $8.29/200/50 mg tablet (Kaletra)
RitonavirBrand: Norvir (Typically used in combination with lopinavir) Multiple HIV protease inhibitor  $1.63/100 mg tablet$8.35/100 mg tablet (Norvir)
SarilumabBrand: Kevzara Sanofi Anti-IL-6(Antibody to the IL-6 receptor designed to reduce lung inflammation) Price not available on the National Average Drug Acquisition Cost database
TocilizumabBrand: Actemra Genetech Anti-IL-6 $926.96/syringe
  1. Information found in the Drugs@FDA database –https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/daf/index.cfm
  2. Prices found in the National Average Drug Acquisition Cost (NADAC) database on Medicaid.gov – https://data.medicaid.gov/Drug-Pricing-and-Payment/NADAC-National-Average-Drug-Acquisition-Cost-/a4y5-998d
  3. On March 28, 2020, the FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to allow hydroxychloroquine sulfate and chloroquine phosphate products donated to the Strategic National Stockpile to be distributed and prescribed by doctors to hospitalized teen and adult patients with COVID-19, as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or feasible.

The research group 46Brooklyn has released a tool for monitoring price changes that may also be of interest to states. Their Abnormal Drug Price Increase Tracker (ADPIT) identifies generic drugs experiencing “abnormal” price increases, measured by the National Average Drug Acquisition Cost (NADAC) database. Due to the volatility of generic drug prices, it can be challenging to determine if a generic price increase is excessively high or in line with historical data. Some price increases may result from shortages. The ADPIT seeks to capture if an increase is “abnormal” by comparing it to the previous 52 weeks of NADAC data.

States are also monitoring for potential price increases or shortages of drugs that treat respiratory complications related to COVID-19, such as albuterol inhalers. For example, some state employee health plans (SEHPs) are also closely watching changing drug prices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Plan administrators are using historical claims data to identify the previous prices paid for certain antimalarial drugs that may be used for COVID-19. SEHPs hope to use this information to gauge where prices should be for a drug in case it is determined to be an appropriate treatment. They are also making adjustments to their formularies to minimize the impact of shortages, such as for inhalers.

For additional information on states’ drug pricing transparency programs, including their authorizing statutes and current transparency reports, explore NASHP’s Center for State Rx Drug Pricing.

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