Trump's drug ad price transparency contains huge loophole, researchers identify

Research data published in JAMA Internal Medicine reveal that a proposal by the administration of US President Donald Trump that would require drugmakers to disclose list prices in certain ads has a significant loophole, CNN reported Tuesday.

"This regulation has good intentions, but the design of it leaves a huge loophole, and without getting rid of it, this law will have no effect," said study author Ge Bai, adding "the loophole is that pharmaceutical companies understand that modifiers work. They will do things to blunt what the administration is trying to achieve."

In the study, the investigators assigned 580 people to view one of five fictitious drug ads, including two ads with low or high prices, two ads with low or high prices plus modifiers such as "eligible patients may be able to get [the drug] for as little as $0 per month, as well as a control ad that did not disclose the drug price.

"For the high-priced drug, the price disclosure significantly reduced the likelihood of participants asking their physician about the drug, asking their insurer about the drug, researching the drug online and taking the drug," the research team stated, adding "however, this finding weakened if the advertisement included a modifier indicating that consumers' out-of-pocket cost might be zero."

"The problem is that many pharmaceutical companies already make use of copay programs or coupons, which our study shows mitigates the benefits of price transparency," remarked study author Jace Garrett, continuing "so unless legislation does something to curb the use of these copay programs, price transparency may have little effect."

"It's a feel-good law…but it actually won't have any effect because the loophole is so obvious -- and drug makers will for sure take advantage of it," noted Bai.

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