Sharp increases in drug costs draw hundreds to government forum

The Obama administration’s top health officials said Friday that the nation needs greater clarity about the cost and effectiveness of prescription drugs as part of a strategy to make medicines more affordable without stunting the emergence of new pharmaceuticals.

The current scattered system, in which drugs are priced differently depending on who is paying for them, "end[s] up obscuring" their true cost and, in turn, the impact on which patients have access to them, said Andy Slavitt, who oversees Medicare, Medicaid and insurance exchanges in the Health and Human Services department.  "We must increase the transparency of the information available about drug pricing and value," he said.