Will Trump's plan to force drug makers to list prices in ads actually work?

Speaking of pricing (as we so often must), President Trump recently demanded that drug makers must list their prices in televised ads. Bringing that to fruition is not so simple, however, as STAT’s Ed Silverman points out. The numbers that biopharma companies end up revealing to consumers will be confusing, and often, irrelevant.

List prices, after all, paint a rather incomplete picture of the actual costs of the drugs. The real figures involve hidden transactions between drug makers (see above), pharmacy benefit managers, and insurers.

If the Trump administration wants to legitimately reduce drug costs, it’ll take more nuanced — and controversial — measures, including allowing Medicare to negotiate prices, rely on cost-effectiveness measures for higher cost medications, and let Americans import some drugs, Ed writes.