New bipartisan bill targets drug prices--and Mylan
The bill would allow HHS to reclassify a drug and recoup rebates when a manufacturer deliberately misclassifies a drug.
Senators Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have introduced a bill that’s aimed at the methods drug companies use to overcharge taxpayers for Medicaid rebates.
As The Hill reports, the bill, put forward by the incoming chairman and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, could mean that the two are looking for common ground on drug prices.
Specifically mentioning pharmaceutical company Mylan by name, the bill would provide new authority to the Department of Health and Human Services to reclassify a drug and recoup rebates when a manufacturer deliberately misclassifies a drug in order to pay lower rebates.
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Mylan has already paid $465 million to settle a lawsuit with the Justice Department in 2016 for such an incorrect classification in the case of the EpiPen, which it classified as a generic drug in fact it was a brand-name drug. And even at so many millions, the report says, the settlement may have only been a drop in the bucket of the total amount Mylan underpaid. It cited one federal analysis that determined taxpayers may have overpaid for EpiPen by as much as $1.27 billion over 10 years.
“While families struggle to afford medicines like EpiPen, drug makers are busy manipulating the system to squeeze taxpayers even more,” Wyden is quoted saying in a statement. He added, “This bipartisan bill will crack down on Big Pharma’s games and help prevent them from taking advantage of Medicaid, a program meant to protect the most vulnerable.”
Not only has the Trump administration been outspoken about its determination to cut drug prices—as yet unsuccessful—both parties have declared the objective of passing legislation that would compel drug prices to come down.
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