Patient Assistance Programs From Pharma Companies Need Streamlining, US Senators Say

BMS CEO Boerner acknowledged the complexity of patient assistance programs, and the need for simplification, during a Senate hearing. CEOs of J&J and Merck also tout their patient assistance programs as showing the firms’ commitment to helping patients access drugs they cannot afford.

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Bristol Myers Squibb is looking at how many hoops patients have to jump through to access copay assistance. • Source: Shutterstock

Simplifying patient assistance program applications may be an administrative fix that comes out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s recent hearing on US drug prices.

The hearing, which featured three pharmaceutical company CEOs, produced no new revelations about why drug costs in the US are higher than in other countries or novel legislative reforms aimed...

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