Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) are cosponsoring a bill, the Fair Drug Pricing Act, which would require pharmaceutical companies to justify their pricing and give HHS an outline of their costs before raising prices on specific drugs, according to STAT.
Here are five takeaways:
1. Per the legislation, drug companies would submit a justification to HHS 30 days prior to raising certain drugs' prices by more than 10 percent.
2. The legislation will also require companies to provide manufacturing as well as research and development costs for such drugs, as well as the net profits the companies accrued from the drugs. The report will also include marketing and advertising spending on the drugs.
3. Sen. McCain and Rep. Schakowsky hope the legislation will both promote transparency as well as provide American taxpayers ample notice of price increases.
4. The law would not feature any proprietary and confidential information, but would make other information publicly available within 30 days in an "understandable online format," according to STAT.
5. Last year, STAT and Boston-based Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health conducted a poll finding 75 percent of Americans believe prescription drug prices are unreasonable compared to other goods and services.
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