Drug corporations are sticking American families with skyrocketing prescription drug prices
That’s why I’ve proposed a bipartisan reform to help lower costs for taxpayers
Earlier this year, the pharmaceutical drug corporation Mylan jacked up the price of EpiPens from about $100 to over $600. This is just one example of what has become an all too common drug corporation practice of systematically increasing prescription drug prices for American families.
Drug corporations and the pharmaceutical industry have a lot of power in Washington. But I don’t work for them, I work for the people of Wisconsin and it is time someone stood up for them. I’ve heard from countless Wisconsinites about the skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs and they desperately need Washington to act to provide some relief.
That is why I introduced the FAIR Drug Pricing Act, bipartisan legislation with John McCain to require accountability and transparency for drug corporations who are jacking up costs for families in need of affordable lifesaving treatments.
Reports show that major drug corporations have drastically raised prices for top-selling drugs over the past five years, in some cases more than doubling prices. U.S. prescription drug spending reached a record high of $425 billion in 2015, accounting for almost 16.7 percent of all U.S. health care spending, with expectations that spending will surpass $600 billion by 2020. American taxpayers and individuals who rely on these prescription drugs are paying for these price increases, without any knowledge of why or what they are getting for their money.
The FAIR Drug Pricing Act would require accountability and basic transparency for pharmaceutical corporations that plan to increase drug prices on consumers.
Specifically, the FAIR Drug Pricing Act would require drug manufacturers to notify the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and submit a transparency and justification report 30 days before they increase the price of certain drug products by more than 10 percent. The report will require manufacturers to provide a justification for each price increase, manufacturing, research and development costs for the qualifying drug, net profits attributable to the qualifying drug, marketing and advertising spending on the qualifying drug, and other information as deemed appropriate. The bill will not prohibit manufacturers from increasing prices, but it will, for the first time, give taxpayers notice of price increases and bring basic transparency to the market for prescription drugs.
The American people strongly agree that these reforms are necessary.
A recent national survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that a vast majority of Americans favor requiring drug pricing transparency, just as we propose in the FAIR Drug Pricing Act.
86% of Americans favor requiring drug companies to release information to the public on how they set drug prices. And there is strong bipartisan support, with 83% of Democrats, 88% of Republicans, and 88% of Independents backing our bipartisan reform to require drug corporations to be more transparent with information about prescription drug prices.
The vast majority of Americans believe this reform will help lower prescriptions drug costs for families, and they are right.
American taxpayers deserve better and it is time to act. Let’s require basic transparency from drug corporations, lets hold them accountable to the American people, and let’s work to lower costs to families struggling to get ahead.
