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You've probably had the experience of going to the pharmacy to pick up a medication and being surprised by how much it costs.

If prescription drugs in the United States (U.S.) seem expensive, you're not alone. Understanding why medications cost so much can be complicated, involving everything from drug development and patents to insurance coverage and government policies.

That's where the expertise of physician-scientists such as Benjamin Rome, M.D., M.P.H., of Mass General Brigham, comes in.

Rome is a primary care physician and health policy researcher studying how federal and state policies shape the regulation, use, cost and affordability of prescription drugs, and how those decisions affect patients' access to care and health outcomes.

We spoke with Rome to better understand why prescription drugs cost what they do and how his research is working to make them more affordable.

Rome: I am part of the Program on Regulation, Therapeutics and Law, or PORTAL, an interdisciplinary research group within the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Mass General Brigham.

Our group focuses on the development, regulation, evidence-based use and cost of prescription drugs.

My research focuses on the cost of prescription drugs, how policies affect those costs and how affordability influences whether patients can access the medications they need.

Rome: When a new brand-name drug comes to market, it is typically protected by patents that prevent other companies from selling competing (generic) versions.

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