{"id":113070,"date":"2019-02-08T07:01:06","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T12:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=113070"},"modified":"2019-02-08T07:01:35","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T12:01:35","slug":"113070","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2019\/02\/08\/113070\/","title":{"rendered":"Brown sponsor of drug reform legislation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

VW independent\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) have announced legislation that would address the prescription drug affordability crisis. Their Medicare Negotiation and Competitive Licensing Act would authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to negotiate drug prices and, if drug companies refuse to negotiate in good faith, it would enable the Secretary to issue a competitive, compulsory license to another company that is willing and able to produce the medication as a generic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sherrod Brown<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Senator Brown is the lead sponsor of the bill in the Senate; the original co-sponsors of the bill in the Senate are Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin). Congressman Doggett is the lead sponsor of the bill in the House of Representatives; his original co-sponsors of the bill in the House are Representatives Peter Welch (D-Vermont) and Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe purpose of medicine is to help people, not to line the pockets of Big Pharma executives. Our bill would call Big Pharma\u2019s bluff and demand prescription drug companies offer fair prices, or be boxed out,\u201d said Senator Brown, who also introduced the Stop Price Gouging Acton Thursday. That bill would penalize pharmaceutical companies that engage in price gouging without cause, leading to price spikes for patients who rely on medication to treat diseases ranging from cancer to addiction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet\u2019s cut prices so that patients don\u2019t have to cut pills in half. Our proposal responds to an American problem, rampant prescription price gouging, with an American solution — negotiation and competition,\u201d said Representative Doggett. \u201cWe repeal and replace the Republican-imposed law prohibiting negotiation and empower the use of generic competition to lower prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile there is no wonder drug to eliminate price gouging, the cure begins by making patients\u2019 health and security nonnegotiable,\u201d Doggett added. \u201cWe call on President Trump to follow the advice of Candidate Trump; let\u2019s start saving billions through \u2018bidding.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cMedicare is one of the largest drug purchasers in the country. It should not be restricted from negotiating the best deal with drug manufacturers,\u201d said Senator Klobuchar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, Americans spent an all-time high of $360 billion on prescription drugs. According to a 2016 Consumer Reports survey, 30 percent of Americans who experienced an increase in the price of one or more of their medications left a prescription unfilled because it was too expensive; 15 percent said they cut pills in half to make them last longer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VW independent\/submitted information WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) have announced legislation that would address the prescription drug affordability crisis. Their Medicare Negotiation and Competitive Licensing Act would authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to negotiate drug prices and, if drug companies refuse to negotiate in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 18:29:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113070\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}