WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 25, 2019) – Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) issued the following statement in opposition to the Senate Finance Committee drug pricing legislation:

“Yesterday, PhRMA CEO Steve Ubl and member company representatives had a productive meeting with President Trump to discuss ways to lower medicine costs for patients. We expressed our desire to ensure policy reforms result in immediate and meaningful savings for patients at the pharmacy counter, and we reiterated our opposition the current Senate Finance Committee legislation because it fails to achieve this shared goal and imposes harmful price controls in Medicare Part D.

“The Senate Finance Committee legislation is the wrong approach to lowering drug prices. It would siphon more than $150 billion from researching and developing new medicines and give those savings to the government, insurers and PBMs, instead of using those savings to lower costs for seniors at the pharmacy counter. For example, while the bill establishes an out-of-pocket cap, according to MedPAC it will only benefit 2% of Medicare patients starting in 2022. It also fails to ensure the deep discounts negotiated in the Medicare prescription drug program are passed along to patients in the form of lower out-of-pocket costs. And it replaces the successful, market-based structure of Medicare Part D with Medicaid-style price controls that result in money going to the Federal treasury instead of seniors.

“We want to work with the Administration and Congress on a better solution that avoids price controls and provides greater cost relief for seniors.”

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About PhRMA

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) represents the country’s leading innovative biopharmaceutical research companies, which are devoted to discovering and developing medicines that enable patients to live longer, healthier and more productive lives. Since 2000, PhRMA member companies have invested more than $900 billion in the search for new treatments and cures, including an estimated $79.6 billion in 2018 alone.

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