Press Release

The Latest Congressional Initiatives on Drug Pricing

With multiple committees in both the House and Senate working on legislation to bring down the cost of drugs, AAF’s Deputy Director of Health Care Policy Tara O’Neill Hayes outlines the various proposals considered thus far and highlights their fundamental aim. While the mechanisms differ, she notes, almost all proposed reforms seek to boost competition in one way or another.

An excerpt:

The bills that aim to increase competition directly do so primarily by increasing scrutiny of certain tactics sometimes used by first-to-market companies to thwart or delay market entrance by a competing product. Many others would attempt to increase transparency of the pricing practices of manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers, which aim indirectly to help increase competition. Finally, some of the bills seek to reduce the cost to develop new drugs, which should also indirectly increase competition and hopefully allow the drugs to be provided at a lower price than they otherwise would be if the development costs were higher.

Read the analysis.

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