July 29, 2025
Baltimore Sun
Chevall Pryce
Excerpt:
“During Monday’s meeting, the board took a break to meeting privately to discuss proprietary information for each drug related to their price over time. Cost, as well as the drugs being essential for patients to live, were taken into account for the preliminary determination. Both drugs received individual studies but came away with similar results. The study found 1% of Maryland’s total gross spending on drugs went to Farxiga, while 2.5% went to Jardiance.
“It’s a significant portion of the drug spending by the state of Maryland,” board member Gerard Anderson, a professor of medicine and health policy for the Johns Hopkins University, said of Farxiga, adding that the wholesale acquisition cost, or WAC, “increased substantially faster than overall inflation, which has the effect of increasing the cost to the healthcare system.”
The board also considered therapeutic alternatives, like a more affordable medicine or treatment therapy, when discussing the costs. Levy said that patients who use drugs like Farxiga shouldn’t be priced out and forced to use alternatives.
“Farxiga is an effective drug,” he said. “I think that should absolutely be acknowledged when we’re thinking about affordability and access.”
Vincent DeMarco, of Maryland Healthcare for All, said the coalition is hoping that the board will put a cap on what the state and local governments pay for the drugs based on its cost study.
“We look forward to the PDAB, next year, using its authority under legislation enacted this year, to also make these, and other high cost drugs, more affordable for all Marylanders,” DeMarco said “Drugs don’t work if people can’t afford them.”
Read the full article at baltimoresun.com.
Last modified: July 30, 2025
