Perry Hall Politician Aims to Stop Soaring Prescription Drug Prices

I will be introducing legislation in the upcoming 2017 General Assembly session to address skyrocketing prescription drug prices and alleged price gouging. Soaring prescription drug prices threaten accessible and affordable health care, put financial strains on hospitals, and force increases in insurance premiums and Medicaid and Medicare expenditures, which are supported by out tax dollars. Maryland Insurance Commissioner and former District 8 Delegate, Al Redmer said in a recent hearing before the Health and Government Operations Committee, that the increase in pharmaceutical costs over the past several years constitutes about 25% of the increase in overall insurance rates.

Even generic drug prices are soaring. In 1984, Congress approved law to create the generic drug industry in an attempt to make drugs more affordable, but some generic companies have become the new price gouging villains of health care.

Public outrage was sparked at the obscene price increase of EpiPen, a life-saving treatment for millions whose allergies can send them into severe shock. Since 2007, the pharmaceutical company Mylan NV increased the price of EpiPen 548% to $608.61 for a pack of two doses.

Similarly, Turig Pharmaceuticals suddenly raised the price of Daraprim, an anti-malaria drug, 5,000% from $13.50 for a single pill to $750. Gylycopyrrolate, a drug used before surgery to dry secretions spiraled from $5 to $23 a unit over two years, driving hospital spending from $5 million to $73 million. Between 2013 and 2015, the price of the decades old pain reliever, acetaminophen, soared from a unit price of $13 to $30, driving spending from $43 million to nearly $100 million. According to a survey of more than 700 community hospitals, drug spending on hospital-administered inpatient drugs are increasing faster than retail drug spending.

My legislation, supported by the Maryland Citizens' Health Initiative, requires prescription drug companies to disclose how they set prices, notify the public of significant price hikes, and authorize the state attorney general to take legal action to prevent price-gouging. Fierce opposition from the pharmaceutical industry is a certainty.

A poll taken by Opinion Works revealed that 84% of Maryland voters want prescription drug transparency, which would require drug companies to explain how they set their prices, including their profits, and how much they spend on research, advertising and production. The poll also found widespread support for requiring drug companies to notify the public if they plan to increase prices by 10% or more, as well as a provision enabling the state attorney general to take legal action to prevent unfair price hikes.

An August 2016 Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 86% of people supported requiring drug companies to release to the public information explaining how they set their prices.