New poll results say that Marylanders believe prescription drug prices can be reduced without cutting into funding for drug researc and development. Photo by Angela Breck.
A new poll says an overhwhelming majority of Marylanders believe drug manufacturers could reduce costs for prescription drugs without cutting into funds going to research and development of new drugs, a key argument of the pharmaceutical industry.
The poll, released this month by Gonzales Research & Media Services Inc, found that 83% of Marylanders surveyed agreed with the statement that drug companies can lower the costs of prescription drugs by spending less on advertising and other expenses.
“Among Maryland voters, a sweeping 83% align more closely with the belief that drug companies can afford to make their drugs less expensive, given their inflated profits and exorbitant spending on advertising; while only 12% think that capping the prices drug companies can charge for prescriptions would constrain their ability to finance research for new medications, with 5% providing no opinion,” according to the poll results released Monday.
Vincent DeMarco, president of the Maryland Health Care for All coalition which commissioned the polling question, said it shows that “the public understands that the drug companies’ scare tactics are just that — scare tactics.”
“They (Marylanders) really feel the need to make these high-cost drugs more affordable, and they believe that it can be done without undermining research,” DeMarco said.
But the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) maintains that the high costs of certain drugs help fund development and research of future treatments, and efforts to restrict prices could jeopardize those efforts.
The poll results speaks to an ongoing debate on the potential consequences of decisions made by Maryland’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board, which is currently tasked with bringing down drug costs for state and local government health care plans.
Members of the pharmaceutical industry, such as PhRMA, are largely against such boards, saying that “government price-setting policies” reduce access to new drugs by cutting into research and development funds, among other concerns.
“Patients in Maryland should be very concerned with failed price-setting schemes like the current PDAB, which has cost millions of dollars and failed to keep the promise made to patients of keeping drug costs low,” said Stami Turk, a PhRMA spokesperson, in a statement Monday. “Continuing to support a board that saves the state money, rather than patients, is not a policy that deserves continued support.”
The poll of 811 registered Maryland voters was taken from Dec. 27 to Jan. 4 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. Those surveyed were asked which of two statements came closer to their beliefs: “Drug corporations make inflated profits and spend excessively on advertising. They can easily afford to make their drugs more affordable” or “Limiting what drug corporations can be paid for expensive prescriptions would limit their ability to fund research for new drugs.”
Of the 83% who agreed more with the first statement, the greatest support came from Democratic voters. About 90% of Democrats agreed that pharmaceutical companies could make drugs more affordable, while 7% believed that reducing drug costs would limit research funding for new drugs.
But support for the first statement was also overwhelmingly strong among Republicans and independents. The poll said 76% of Republican voters and 73% of independent voters agreed drug manufacturers could bring costs down without cutting into research; 17% of both Republicans and independents feared that reducing drug costs could affect research and development.
Last year, a study from Public Citizen reported that the top 10 manufacturers of drugs prescribed in Maryland collectively spent $10 billion in 2022 on advertising, and $9 billion more on share repurchases, dividends to shareholders and executive compensation than they spent on research and development in 2022.
Health care advocates like DeMarco want the General Assembly to expand the state’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board’s mandate to reduce drug costs for all Marylanders, not just those on government health care plans. The Gonzales poll results were released just days before the start of the 2025 legislative session, when the General Assembly will consider legislation that would do just that.
“In response to our efforts to make high-cost drugs more affordable, the main argument the drug corporations use is that they need these high prices for research. Which we don’t think is true because they spend so much money on advertising and profits,” DeMarco said.
“What this poll shows is that Marylanders know that — they may not have all the details at their fingertips — but they see these ads, they see every night on the TV the billions of dollars that the drug corporations spend on these ads,” DeMarco said. “And I’m sure they’re thinking ‘why are you spending that money on these ads and charging me so much for these same drugs?’”