The Senate plans to start working toward new drug price legislation this summer to help President Trump tackle high prices, even though previous bipartisan measures have struggled to get off the ground.
Trump’s blueprint issued a few weeks ago includes several proposal, and senators are planning their own legislation to complement the blueprint. The effort will start next month, when the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hosts Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on June 12 to discuss the blueprint.
Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said ideas for new legislation could come out of the hearing.
“I think step one for us is to find out what is in the blueprint because we haven’t gotten any details and this is a chance for the secretary to explain it,” Alexander told the Washington Examiner on Thursday.
Congress has not put out a lot of legislation on lowering drug prices. Last year, Congress passed legislation to hasten approvals for generic drugs to improve competition. But GOP lawmakers are trying to figure what what legislation might complement the blueprint.
“They don’t know what has to be legislative or executive,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., referring to the Trump administration on Wednesday. “Maybe they can do things that are executive but can’t do in the private market.”
He added that he has met with HHS officials in the last two weeks to coordinate on possible legislation.
One bill that could be considered would meet the Trump administration’s demand that pharmacy benefit managers and insurers stop inserting “gag clauses” into contracts with pharmacies. The “gag clause” would prevent a pharmacy from telling a customer that it is cheaper to buy a prescription with cash than through their insurance.
The administration sent a letter to plans that manage plans in Medicare Part D, the program’s prescription drug plan, to eliminate the practice. The Trump administration needs Congress to end the practice for private plans.
There is a bipartisan bill that would end this practice, but it has not advanced yet through the Senate. Cassidy said it is possible for the bill to advance quickly through the Senate since it has bipartisan support.
Another bill that has bipartisan support is the CREATES Act, which aims to clamp down on drugmakers that “game” the system to dampen generic competition. The bill would make it easier for a generic drug company to sue a brand name company that denies them access to samples of their product.
A generic company often needs up to 5,000 copies of a brand name product in order to conduct testing needed for Food and Drug Administration approval. But a brand name drug company can find ways to deny access to the samples, either through an agreement with a specialty distributor to restrict sales to a generic company or citing an FDA safety strategy.
The CREATES Act would make it easier for generic companies to challenge a brand name company and get a cheaper generic to market faster.
But even though the bill has bipartisan support in both chambers, it has not advanced in Congress. The pharmaceutical industry is heavily opposed to the measure, and critics say that it will help only trial lawyers by increasing litigation.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said recently that there is compromise legislation being drafted by committees, but he didn’t say there was any timeline for advancing the legislation.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., one of the Senate bill’s main sponsors, told the Washington Examiner that there are still issues surrounding the legislation.
“We’re working on it, but it is two steps forward and one back,” he said.