Representatives Hoyle and Doggett Introduce Legislation to Lower Prescription Drug Pricing
Representatives Hoyle and Doggett Introduce Legislation to Lower Prescription Drug Pricing
The bill would block pharmaceutical companies from price gouging Americans on taxpayer-funded prescription drugs
Washington DC - Today, U.S. Representative Val Hoyle (OR-04) and U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett (TX-37) announced they will introduce legislation to combat price gouging on prescription drugs developed with taxpayer dollars. The Affordable Pricing for Taxpayer-Funded Prescription Drugs Act would require federal agencies to secure affordable pricing agreements from drug manufacturers before granting exclusive rights to develop prescription drugs or other healthcare products.
"No one should ever have to pick between lifesaving medication or putting food on the table. Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars are used to fund the development of nearly every lifesaving prescription drug, so when pharmaceutical companies hike up the prices of the very same medications that taxpayers funded to make major profits, it’s theft,” said Rep. Hoyle.
“American taxpayers are the angel investors in pharmaceutical research and development—funding about half of all R&D for FDA-approved drugs, while being forced to pay more than patients most anywhere due to Big Pharma price gouging,” said Rep. Doggett. “We need to cut outrageous prices, so folks aren’t forced to cut pills in half—costing lives and livelihoods. The Affordable Pricing for Taxpayer-Funded Prescription Drugs Act enables hardworking American families to access the life-saving medications they paid to develop and provides greater transparency into the costs of pharmaceutical development.”
“The U.S. Government is the largest supporter of biomedical research and development in the world, yet U.S. patients and taxpayers are routinely charged multiples of the prices people in other large, wealthy countries pay for prescription drugs. Drug corporation profiteering off Americans for drugs we paid to invent is unjust and leads to preventable suffering and death,” said Peter Maybarduk, Director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Program. “Public Citizen is grateful for Reps. Hoyle and Doggett introducing the Affordable Pricing for Taxpayer-Funded Prescription Drugs Act, which would expand access to affordable medicines and bring fairness through requiring federal agencies to include reasonable pricing requirements in licenses, contracts, and other agreements through which Americans support biomedical R&D.”
Currently, pharmaceutical companies receive substantial subsidies from American taxpayers for the research, development, and marketing of drugs. A 2020 study found that each of the 356 drugs approved by the FDA between 2010 and 2019 benefited from taxpayer-funded research.
Despite taxpayers’ initial investment in the development of crucial prescription drugs, they are paying nearly four times more than people in similar countries for prescription drugs while pharmaceutical corporations are raking in record profits. Leading drug companies use their profits to line the pockets of shareholders and spend more money on stock buybacks and dividends than on research and development – all while arguing that affordable pricing agreements for taxpayer-funded drugs would stifle innovation. This is false.