Will the aggressive marketing of name-brand drugs in West Virginia turn out to be a financial liability for some Mountain State residents?

Are West Virginians being steered away from generic medications that are less costly and just as effective as their name-brand counterparts?

Members of the West Virginia Pharmaceutical Cost Management Council will hold a public meeting Monday (Nov. 7) at the College of Law to take up those questions and more.

State lawmakers created the council last year as a way to reduce medicine costs in West Virginia, which has the second-highest, drug-spending burden in the nation.

The committee, which is chaired by law professor Kevin Outterson, will meet from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. in Room 165 of the law school.

Leading the agenda, Outterson said, will be a discussion of the committees ongoing plan to force name-brand drug manufacturers to regulate themselvesby disclosing the full extent of their marketing programs in the state.

Just such a disclosure, Outterson said, would be a prescription for positive change, in West Virginia and elsewhere.

Patients and physicians are easily influenced by this sort of advertising and marketing,Outterson said.Dangerous drugs such as Vioxx were heavily advertised. Many advertisers steer patients away from much cheaper generic drugs.

The public will be invited to address the committee either at 10 a.m. or noon, Outterson said.

Representatives of the state Public Employees Insurance Agency, meanwhile, will hold a separate public meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday (Nov. 8) at Morgantowns Ramada Inn to discuss planned premium increases for its policy holders across the state.

Workers can expect a 22 percent increase with a 17 percent set for retirees after July 1, 2006. PEIA is expected to improve that increase in Decemberand the rate change would come on top of an already 7 percent increase that kicks in Jan. 1 of the new year.