Pelosi Releases Drug Pricing Bill
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has released her “transformative” drug pricing legislation and says she hopes the White House will support it. NPR reports that the proposal calls for HHS to annually negotiate prices for the top 250 most expensive drugs on the market that don’t have at least two competitors. The price determined by the negotiations would be available to all purchasers and not just Medicare beneficiaries. Prices would be tied to the costs for the same drug in other countries, using an “international price index.”
The bill reportedly would levy fines starting at 65% of the gross sales of the drug on companies that refuse to negotiate. It also would limit how much drug costs can go up. The proposal says the “steep, escalating penalty creates a powerful financial incentive for drug manufacturers to negotiate and abide by the final price.” Money saved in negotiations would be reinvested in drug research at the National Institutes of Health, the plan says. The proposal also includes a $2,000 out-of-pocket cap on prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries and the disabled.
Pelosi told the media the proposal was a first step that will be modified in the committee process and through public review. She said that empowering the HHS secretary to negotiate drug prices is a non-negotiable element.
Committees are expected to take up the legislation as soon as next week, NPR reports, with a goal of obtaining House passage before year’s end. The news service says that Pelosi’s proposal is the “most sweeping plan on the table” and includes ideas that President Trump has indicated in the past that he could support. Democrats reportedly believe that if Pelosi and Trump could reach an agreement, the president could supply enough Republican votes to get the measure through both the House and Senate and signed into law.
Drug lobbyists have opposed any effort to regulate the drug market. Biotechnology Industry Organization president Jim Greenwood, a former House member, said in a statement that “this proposal crushes the desperate hopes of patients and their families that life science innovators will be the answer to their prayers. It abandons any pretense of allowing a free and fair market system to determine the value of prescription medicines, including for the most innovative medical breakthroughs. It will extinguish any incentive for investors to provide the necessary funds to advance biotech medical discovery.”
NPR notes that Senate Finance Committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) recently negotiated a deal with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) for a bill that limits out-of-pocket costs for those covered by Medicare’s Part D prescription drug program to $3,100 per year starting in 2022. A draft of the proposal was released from the Finance Committee over the objections of most committee Republicans. Grassley indicated a hope that Pelosi’s more aggressive bill will steer reluctant Republicans to his measure. He reportedly has warned colleagues that if they don’t coalesce around an alternative to go to Trump for his support, the president could join forces with Pelosi instead.