DeSantis Announces Plan to Reduce Prescription Drug Costs

THE VILLAGES (FLV) – Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the most comprehensive prescription drug legislation in Florida history at The Villages on Thursday.

DeSantis said they are going to protect small businesses by prohibiting spread pricing where PBMs (pharmacy benefit managers) charge customers more than it cost and prohibit small businesses against surprise bills and clawbacks from PBMs, months after prescriptions are filled.

PBMs manage prescription drug benefits for insurance companies. They act as the middleman for insurance companies and pharmacies and can drive up costs for consumers. 

“There’s so much bureaucracy – there’s middle men, a whole host of things built up over the years, there’s a lot of people that make a lot of money and the people that end up paying are the consumers, some of our small businesses, so we wanted to do something about it,” DeSantis said.

The legislation will prohibit PBMs from mandating consumers use a mail-order pharmacy while allowing consumers to opt-in to the service.

It will ensure no Florida-registered PBM mandates a narrow network that only includes PBM affiliated pharmacies.

DeSantis said they are highlighting price increases drug manufactures are doing.

“The myth is that pharmaceutical companies are spending a lot of money on research and development and that’s why we have new drugs. The fact is that most of the innovation in terms of drugs, that has been happening in this country, comes not from the pharmaceutical industry, it starts in universities,” he explained.

Ladapo said research is done at Universities and it drives the innovation in the pharmaceutical space.

“It’s a lie when they tell you they need to charge you 10x as much as they’re charging someone in Peru or Belgium or wherever, because they need your money and my money and Florida’s money for research – it’s a total lie,” Ladapo said.

“I look forward to continuing to support the Governor and our lawmakers and our efforts to make prices more affordable, it’s a ridiculous racket, what the markup is, the pharmaceutical companies… God bless everyone for their God-given, American right to make a profit… what they’re making you need a new word for, it’s way beyond profits.”

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