Drug firms offer one-stop access for help with drug costs

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A coalition of drug companies and health care providers on Tuesday launched a new effort to make it easier for poor patients to find information on private and public programs offering free medicines.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), an industry group, said the new outreach campaign includes three national call centers and a new Web site to help consolidate details on about 275 assistance programs.

While drug manufacturers offer 150 programs to give away medicines, according to PhRMA, some patient advocates and others critics have complained the process involves lengthy applications and complicated income assessments.

Mary Frank, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, which is part of the coalition, said many low-income patients do without drugs when they cannot afford them or figure out how to get them through aid.

“It’s been so onerous for patients that most of them have thrown up their hands,” she said.

A study published last week showed drug assistance programs are too time-consuming and complex for some health clinics that serve mostly low-income patients.

Of 214 clinics in five states surveyed in 2002, 48 said they did not participate, according to the survey funded by the philanthropic California Health Care Foundation and published in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy.

It also found drug donation programs consumed an average of 12 hours of pharmacist time and 99 hours of other staff time per month.

PhRMA has said it encourages drug makers to simplify the process, but each company runs its own program and decides who qualifies and how much to donate. Last year, the industry gave away 22 million free prescriptions worth $4.7 billion, PhRMA President Billy Tauzin said.

Charitable programs from GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Novartis AG and Schering-Plough Corp. were the least likely to be used, while others offered by Pfizer Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Merck & Co. Inc. were used more frequently, the health clinic survey also showed.

The new centralized information will help cut the time it takes for doctors, patients and others to track down programs that could help, said the new coalition, called Partnership for Prescription Assistance.

While the new advertising effort may increase demand for free medicines, it is in the drug makers’ interest to help poorer patients, especially for the marketplace.

The groups are spending $10 million in national television and newspaper advertisements starting this week to direct people to the site, http://www.pparx.org, and call centers.

“It’s in everybody’s interest in this country for us to make sure nobody is left out of a free market delivery system… if the government is not going to end up taking it over some day,” Tauzin said. 

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