Could Faster Drug Approvals Mean Lower Prices for Seniors?

If you are 65 or older, there is a good chance prescription drugs are a regular part of your life.

And if you have ever stood at a pharmacy counter and wondered why a bottle of medicine costs so much, you are certainly not alone.

The high cost of prescription drugs has been debated in Washington for years. Now, the Trump administration is taking a different approach: Make it faster and less expensive to develop and approve new medicines.

The idea is simple. If drug companies can bring new medicines to patients more quickly and at a lower cost, could that eventually lead to more competition and lower prices?

That is the hope behind a new initiative called Operation Trialblazer.

Why does it take so long to get a new medicine?

Before a new drug can reach your pharmacy, it must go through a lengthy testing and approval process.

Those tests are important. They help determine whether a medicine works and whether it is safe for patients.

But developing a new drug can also take many years and cost enormous amounts of money.

Supporters of the administration's approach argue that some of the process can be streamlined without giving up important safety protections. The goal is to eliminate unnecessary delays and make the development process more efficient.

The Daily Signal opinion article behind this discussion argues that reducing some of these costs could be especially helpful to smaller drug companies that may not have the financial resources of major pharmaceutical corporations.

Why should seniors care?

For older Americans, this is more than an abstract Washington debate.

Many seniors take several prescription medications every day. Some rely on medicines to control blood pressure, manage diabetes, protect their hearts or treat other chronic conditions.

When drug prices rise, the effect can be felt directly in the household budget.

A new medicine also may offer hope when an existing treatment does not work well or causes troublesome side effects.

Getting promising medicines to patients sooner could therefore be valuable — provided the medicines are properly tested and shown to be safe and effective.

Could more competition lower prices?

This is where the argument gets particularly interesting.

If it becomes easier and less expensive for companies to develop new medicines, more companies may be willing to enter the market.

And when more companies compete for patients, doctors and consumers, competition can sometimes help bring prices down.

It could also mean more choices.

For seniors who have struggled to find a medicine that works well for them — or who have faced high prices for a particular treatment — having more options can be important.

But there is no guarantee that lower development costs will automatically translate into lower prices at your local pharmacy. Other factors, including insurance coverage, Medicare plans, deductibles and the pricing decisions of drug manufacturers and pharmacies, also play a role.

Faster doesn't mean cutting corners

There is one thing that should matter to everyone, especially older patients: Safety must come first.

The Food and Drug Administration's testing requirements exist for a reason. Patients need to know that the medicines they take have been properly studied.

There is a big difference between eliminating unnecessary delays and eliminating important safety checks.

For seniors who may take several medications at the same time, that distinction is especially important. Drug interactions and side effects can be serious.

So the real test of any effort to speed up drug approvals will be whether it can reduce unnecessary costs and delays while continuing to protect patients.

What about efforts to lower prices today?

Speeding up drug development is only one part of the larger debate over prescription costs.

The Trump administration has also promoted other efforts aimed at helping consumers find lower prices for certain medicines, including TrumpRx.

But finding a lower price can sometimes be confusing. The amount you pay may depend on whether you have Medicare coverage, what type of prescription plan you have, your deductible and whether a generic version of the medicine is available.

For seniors, the question is often much more practical than the political debate:

"How much am I going to pay for this prescription?"

What happens next?

It is too early to know exactly how much Operation Trialblazer will change the price of medicines at the pharmacy counter.

The basic argument, however, is worth watching.

If drug companies can develop medicines more efficiently, and if that leads to greater competition, patients could eventually benefit from more choices and potentially lower costs.

At the same time, any changes must preserve the safety standards that protect patients.

For older Americans, the goal is not complicated: safe medicines, effective treatments and prices that ordinary families can afford.

That is the standard by which any new drug policy should ultimately be judged.