Bipartisan Prescription Drug Pricing Bill Reintroduced in House

WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a Senior Chief Deputy Whip and Chair of the Energy and Commerce Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee, and Congressman Bruce Westerman (R-AR) reintroduced 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 Representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi, Lloyd Doggett, Rosa DeLauro, Mark Pocan, Marcy Kaptur, and Jesús G. "Chuy" García.

"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 reintroduce 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 117th Congress."

"Low cost and widely available medications and treatments are vital to the continued wellbeing of millions of Americans," said Congressman Westerman. The PRICED Act is critical in making prescription drugs more affordable by breaking up manufactures' monopoly on certain drugs and allowing other companies to create generic versions at a lower cost to the patient. 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 second time that the legislation is bipartisan in the House of Representatives. Congresswoman Schakowsky previously introduced the bicameral PRICED Act with Senators Sherrod Brown and the late John McCain, to reduce the biologics exclusivity period that Big Pharma enjoys from 12 to 7 years.

"A key reason why prescriptions are not affordable is that drug corporations have monopoly power to set prices high and raise them any time they want," said Margarida Jorge, Campaign Director, Lower Drug Prices Now. "Congresswoman Schakowsky's PRICED Act is a vital step in breaking up this monopoly control and bringing relief to patients who are being gouged. We applaud her leadership for re-introducing this important legislation."

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.[BG1]

Many recent peer-reviewed studies suggest that biologics are not as time-consuming to develop as initially believed. In 2019, 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 Nature that 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." Additional reports show that there is no difference in the median premarket development time between biologics and small molecule drugs that would justify the 12 years of data exclusivity that biologics currently retain.

Endorsing organizations of the PRICED Act include a robust group of advocacy, labor, and industry stakeholders: Public Citizen, Lower Drug Prices Now, Patients for Affordable Drugs Now, Social Security Works, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Alliance for Retired Americans, Communications Workers of America, United Steelworkers, and United Automobile Workers.

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