More hospitals are stepping up to defend and promote the 340B program. Monroe County Hospital in Monroeville, Ala., is the latest.
Pharmacy Director Cynthia Martens wrote a pointed op-ed in rebuttal to a Big Pharma-generated screed that ran in early April on AL.com, a Gannett news site.
“To read the commentary, Vital Drug Program for the Poor is in Real Danger, you’d think American hospitals are shirking the poor while simultaneously limiting highly profitable pharmaceutical companies from developing new drugs for rare diseases,” she wrote. “All this due to their participation in a small federal drug discount program called 340B. If the argument sounds absurd, it is.”
Martens takes the piece apart, emphasizing the importance of the 340B program:
“Some numbers tell the story. My hospital spends approximately $4.5 million each year on uncompensated care, charity care, and bad debt. Much of this figure comes from losses due to low reimbursements from Medicaid patients. Our annual 340B savings come to approximately $1.1 million each year. This money both helps offset our losses and also funds other medical services such as obstetrics, diabetes education, oncology services and other ambulatory services.”
And on the research question, she hits a home run:
“The author makes an empty argument that price discounts somehow deter drug manufacturers from making investments in research for rare-disease medications. The industry spent a whopping $49 billion on research and development in 2012 and receives generous tax credits and other incentives from the government to invest in rare diseases.”