My bill was a rare win against Big Pharma. It’s just the start.

Penalizing pharmaceutical companies for price gouging and cracking down on costs.

Katie Porter

Dec 19

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Hey look, that’s my bill at work! ⬇️

This ⬆️ is happening because my Freedom From Price Gouging Act went into effect at the beginning of 2023, almost a full year ago. This bill passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, and recovers money from Big Pharma when companies raise prices faster than the rate of inflation.

The Biden Administration recently announced 48 drugs whose prices were hiked this year faster than the rate of inflation. So now, pharmaceutical companies have to pay rebates to the federal government, and that money will be used to lower the price Medicare enrollees pay on the drugs early next year.

Here are some other policies I’m pushing for to further lower drug costs:

The starting cost of a new drug, called a launch price, has accelerated at a staggering pace. From 2008 to 2021, the median launch price of a new drug increased from $2,115 to $180,087. At a minimum, we should limit the launch price of drugs that don’t have demonstrated benefits. The “accelerated approval pathway” allows *potentially* lifesaving drugs to reach patients quickly, but Big Pharma gets to name their price. The high cost puts these medicines out of reach for so many people and burdens taxpayers. Congress could put additional guardrails on the cost of these new drugs.

Let’s get technical: We need to remove Big Pharma policy carve outs that allow drugmakers to evade fair pricing policies. Big Pharma’s army of lobbyists have successfully lobbied for all sorts of loopholes that allow companies to manipulate prices and monopolize markets. Congress can and must crack down on these carve outs and exemptions.

Establish a national drug pricing review board to recommend drug prices based on a medications actual benefit. The way we’ve been doing things isn’t working. In other countries, independent bodies evaluate patented medications to prevent the price gouging we see here in the U.S. This would protect both taxpayers who foot Medicare’s bill, and patients who need medications.

Don’t let Big Pharma tell you they can’t afford these changes. In 2022 alone, Pfizer brought in more than $100 billion in revenue. J&J was just behind them with $95 billion. Novartis, Merck, and AbbVie all brought in more than $50 billion. Their CEOs are all making tens of millions of dollars each year.

We can and must do better; to do that, the cozy relationship between Washington and the pharmaceutical industry must end. In 2022 alone, the pharmaceutical and health industry spent more than $378 million on lobbying.

I’m proud to be the only candidate in this race who has never taken corporate PAC money and rejects money from federal lobbyists and Big Pharma CEOs. (If you’d like to support my campaign, I’d be so grateful – you can chip in here).

I’ll keep holding Big Pharma accountable and fight to lower drug costs. Thanks, as always, for listening and for being a part of our campaign.

Katie