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Drug affordability review

The Prescription Drug Affordability Board will begin a five-phased approach to the 2024-2025 affordability reviews. The board is restarting the affordability process after voting in June to pause the reviews to assess and improve the method. The revised affordability review schedule will be posted on this web page later in 2024.

About the Oregon PDAB affordability reviews: The Prescription Drug Affordability Board conducts annual affordability reviews for identified drugs and insulin products as directed by ORS 646A.694 using criteria established in Oregon law. An affordability review is a process by which the board considers prescription drugs, applies criteria and determines whether the drugs may cause affordability challenges for Oregonians and health care systems in the state.

The board begins with a list of eligible prescription drugs provided by the Drug Price Transparency (DPT) program pursuant to ORS 646A.694. The board also uses insulin information from the Oregon Health Authority All Claims All Payers (APAC) data base. The DPT list comes from information submitted by manufacturers and insurance companies to the Department of Consumer Business Services. The board narrows the lists to a subset list and then reviews the insulin products and prescription drugs one at a time.

The board’s founding legislation, Senate Bill 844, requires that each calendar year the board shall identify nine drugs and at least one insulin product that the board determines may create affordability challenges for health care systems or high out-of-pocket costs for patients in this state.

In 2023, PDAB adopted two rules to guide the affordability review process. OAR 925-200-0010 provides criteria for the board's selection of the subset list of drugs and OAR 925-200-0020 provides criteria to help determine affordability. The rules guide the board as they review the drugs.