Prescription Drugs

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, last week, the Biden administration rolled out the first targets of the scheme it has been working on for years--prescription drug socialism.

Ironically enough, Washington Democrats' plan to fix prices in the market for world-leading medical innovations is baked into legislation they produced after their own runaway spending sent consumer prices through the roof.

As we know, the Inflation Reduction Act did nothing to reduce inflation, and by one estimate, the government price controls it created may well cost the American economy 676,000 jobs.

Before Democrats rammed the IRA through on party lines, the average net prices for drugs were actually stable or falling, but that didn't stop the Biden administration from storming ahead with a drug-by-drug Federal power grab.

So let's be clear about what this means. Companies that don't comply with the administration's scheme will be forced to pay an unprecedented and excessive fine or withdraw their products from Medicare coverage, leaving American seniors with fewer options for lifesaving treatments. Meanwhile, researchers will have less certainty to dedicate years to creating the high-quality, consumer-friendly, affordable medications American industry is known for.

Research from the University of Chicago estimates that prescription drug socialism will result in 135 fewer new drugs--135 fewer new drugs, 188 fewer new treatments, and a $663 billion drop in innovative research and development. It will impact 60 percent of cancer medications on the market today and inevitably freeze innovations on future treatments.

To make matters worse, limits on price increases will force manufacturers to launch new drugs at much higher prices to cover future rising costs and leave many low-income and elderly Americans simply out of luck.

Price fixing is not some bright new idea cooked up on a liberal college campus. It is the sort of decrepit socialism that has been tried with disastrous results in places like China, Cuba, Venezuela, and the former Soviet Union.

We cannot afford for America's world-leading medical innovators to be next on the leftwing chopping block, and the millions of Americans living with rare and aggressive diseases can afford it least of all.

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