Maryland’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board has been gearing up this year to conduct cost reviews of the state’s prescription drug market, and to create a process for establishing upper payment limits on certain costly prescription drugs. At the 2023 Maryland State of Reform Health Policy Conference earlier this year, Andrew York, PharmD, described these efforts and the work the board and its advisors have been doing to accomplish its goal of reducing prescription drug costs for Marylanders.
“Our legislation created us to look at drugs that may be causing affordability challenges for Marylanders. We do that through a process called cost reviews, where we identify drugs that may be causing this problem, and then do a deep dive and actually analyze and understand where those affordability challenges are coming from … We hear from patients weekly, if not daily, about the need for this kind of work, and then obviously the folks that we work with directly are very engaged. So throughout the drug pricing supply chain they’re very interested in our work.”
The board is currently preparing to conduct its first cost reviews in early 2024, and is in the midst of finalizing an Upper Payment Limit action plan.