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Bipartisan Prescription Drug Pricing Bill Introduced in House

June 21, 2019

WASHINGTON, DC – This week, Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a Senior Chief Deputy Whip and Chair of the Energy and Commerce Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee, and Bruce Westerman (R-AR) introduced H.R. 3379, the Price Relief, Innovation, and Competition for Essential Drugs (PRICED) Act to make prescription drugs more affordable and accessible for Americans across the nation. The PRICED Act addresses one of Big Pharma’s most effective price gouging tools by reducing the exclusivity period for biologics from twelve years to five years. The Representatives were joined by 15 other original cosponsors, including Rosa DeLauro, Angie Craig, Lloyd Doggett, and Raja Krishnamoorthi.

“Drug pricing isn’t a partisan issue and taking on the Big Pharma monopoly shouldn’t be either. I am proud to be joined by Congressman Westerman to introduce the PRICED Act, which will make prescription drugs more affordable and accessible for Americans across the nation,” said Congresswoman Schakowsky. “During the health care debate in 2010, we fought hard to reduce the number of years that manufacturers of the newer, more expensive biologic drugs can maintain patent exclusivity, which keeps competitors from putting lower cost drugs on the market. Unfortunately, it still granted twelve years of exclusivity that has allowed biologics manufacturers to enjoy billions of dollars in profits and no competition. That is unacceptable for American taxpayers who fund the majority of research that develops these drugs and who need these drugs to survive. I will fight to finally pass the PRICED Act in the 116th Congress.”

Congressman Westerman said, “the PRICED Act would be critical in making prescription drugs more affordable, which is why I included its provisions in the Fair Care Act. There’s no reason that drug manufacturers should hold a monopoly on certain drugs for 12 years, when other companies could be making generic versions at a lower consumer cost. I'm grateful to join Rep. Schakowsky's work on this issue – we’re proof that health care solutions can and should be bipartisan.”

This Congress marks the first time that the legislation is bipartisan in the House of Representatives. Congresswoman Schakowsky previously introduced the bicameral PRICED Act in the 114th and 115th Congresses with Senators Sherrod Brown and the late John McCain, to reduce the biologics exclusivity period that Big Pharma enjoys from 12 to 7 years.

In 2017, all of the top 10 highest-expenditure drugs in Medicare Part B were biologic products, amounting to over $10 billion. That same year, the Obama Administration Office of Management and Budget estimated that reducing the exclusivity from 12 to 7 years could save almost $7 billion over 10 years. Reducing the exclusivity period to 5 years would save even more money and aligns biologics with the traditional period guaranteed under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and with the exclusivity period for small-molecule drugs.

Many recent peer-reviewed studies suggest that biologics are not as time-consuming to develop as initially believed. On Tuesday, authors from the Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL), Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School published a study in Naturethat concluded “although biologics are often thought to be more time-consuming to develop than small-molecule drugs, development times for biologics are similar to, or possibly somewhat shorter than, for small-molecule drugs.”

Endorsing organizations of the PRICED Act include a robust group of advocacy, labor, and industry stakeholders: Patients for Affordable Drugs Now, Families USA, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, Alliance for Retired Americans, Center for Medicare Advocacy, Medicare Rights Center, Public Citizen, Social Security Works, American Federation of Teachers, United Automobile Workers, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Communications Workers of America, United Steelworkers, and CVS Health.

Issues:Health