A representative of the Culinary Health Fund asked the Legislature’s interim prescription drug pricing committee on Friday to create a long-term commission focused on monitoring prescription drug prices. 

Bobbette Bond, the director of health policy for the fund, emphasized to the Committee to Conduct an Interim Study Concerning the Cost of Prescription Drugs the complicated nature of drug pricing policies, suggesting it would be better to have a commission constantly studying the issues and focused on creating policy, rather than an interim committee that has to be re-educated every legislative session in order to draft bills.

“Our big hope is that the result of this incredible study that you have a chance to do is to recognize the complications of all of these issues,” Bond said. “We really want to propose some sort of price commission that’s looking at what happens to prices over the long haul instead of every 120 days, every 2 years where you have to do all this work with no expertise, and have to be in hyperdrive to understand the idea of a rebate.”

Additionally, Bond spoke to the importance of transparency in drug pricing and how drug companies calling prices a “trade secret” complicates the process of regulating costs. She also emphasized that even when prices are reduced for consumers, if legislation doesn’t reduce the overall pricing of a medication, that cost is merely shifted to a health plan or insurance company.

The Culinary Health Fund is a non-profit that serves more than 130,000 union members and their dependents.

The interim committee met for the first time in January after being formed during the 2019 legislative session. At the first meeting, members heard from policy and drug pricing experts about the process of setting drug prices and policies other states have enacted to counter rising costs.

For the February meeting, eight experts brought a variety of perspectives and suggestions for potential policies, including a representative of AARP Nevada, the Association for Accessible Medicines and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization.

After the two meetings filled with testimony from patients and more than a dozen experts on the topic, committee members intend to shift their focus to bill draft requests for the 2021 legislative session.

The next meeting will take place on Tuesday, March 26.