FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 2, 2015
Statement of the National Association of Medicaid Directors
Washington, DC - NAMD is pleased to learn that manufacturers of
Hepatitis C therapies have finally come to the table to acknowledge and
discuss the unsustainable pricing of their products. We believe this is
an important first step in achieving the goal of making their products
more affordable and accessible for Medicaid consumers and should produce
significant savings for federal and state taxpayers.
However, we believe it is important to clarify several aspects of the
current status of these discussions. While in some states the price
negotiations have been completed, the process is at different stages in
most other states. By their nature these agreements often take
significant time to finalize. This is due to a variety of factors,
including the time that it will take states and their contractors to
fully analyze these proposals and then ultimately finalize agreements
according to their respective state policies and procedures.
Irrespective of these early rebate agreements emerging for some
states, Medicaid Directors remain concerned with regards to the overall
sustainability and pricing levels. Directors take very seriously their
role as stewards of the both the taxpayer dollar and the public trust.
It is therefore important to ensure that these conversations continue in
the evolving field of Hepatitis C treatments, as well as when new
specialty pharmacy products become publicly available.