Anthony Wright“It’s good the state of California is using its power as a purchaser, a regulator (and) a litigator to try to address this issue,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a consumer advocacy group that routinely sponsors health care affordability measures. “This is such a multi-faceted problem that it requires a lot of different solutions.”
....Wright, with Health Access California, said the [manufacturing] strategy applies unusual pressure to the pharmaceutical market. As both a purchaser representing nearly 3.2 million diabetic adults and a manufacturer, the state has different motivations than shareholders do.
“A typical investor is not going to put up the money to develop a new generic for fear of being undercut,” Wright said. “The state of California has a different incentive. If we don’t sell a vial we get the savings as a purchaser. We also have the public policy goal to try and bring down the costs for everybody.”
