Opinion: ‘One-and-done’ for new drugs could cut patent thickets and boost generic competition

In a perfect world, the system for conveying medications from their makers to patients should be designed to deliver the lowest-cost drugs. The system in the U.S. doesn’t even come close.

Insurers should provide the lowest-cost and highest-quality drug benefit for each plan, public or private. But they don’t.

Pharmacy benefit managers should use their volume buying power to obtain rebates that individuals could never obtain on their own and pass those rebates along to patients. But they don’t.

Pharmacists, who know the prices of the drugs in their stock and who see patients’ cost-sharing amounts at the cash register, should be motivated to provide their customers with information on how to find the best deal so they can afford their medicines. But they aren’t.