Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies
Floor Speech
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Mr. GRASSLEY. I want to thank Senator Durbin for his leadership in this area the two or three times we have attempted to do this. One time, I think we were successful, but it is still not law.
I would like to put this in the simplest form I can by saying that watching television all the time, prices are showing up all the time for this product or that product. I don't know how many times I see that something costs $9.99 or $19.99 or that the price of an automobile is $26,000. But when it comes to prescription drugs, presumably there is something very sensitive about this that they don't want to tell us what it is going to cost. Of course that irritates me, but most importantly, it is not fair to the consumer.
Today, we have a President, we have a Vice President, and we have a Secretary of Health and Human Services all on record supporting this commonsense measure to require prescription drug ads to list the price of a drug. In fact, I discussed this with the HHS Secretary prior to his confirmation, and he told me he thought it could be done by regulation. It is my understanding they are studying doing it by regulation, and I would say hurry up and get it done because whether it is done by law or whether it is done by regulation, this is something that should be done.
I want to say that I think my colleagues know that lowering the cost of prescription drugs is a top priority of mine--no more than it is Senator Durbin's. Without their prescription medication, millions of Americans would not survive.
As a nation, we are blessed to live in a country where investment and innovation unlock cures and treatments--some of them we even refer to as miracle cures. But the escalating prices of prescription drugs are a consuming concern for millions of Americans, including in my State of Iowa, where they bring up this very subject regularly at my county meetings.
There are many reasons for the high cost of prescription drugs. It could be the lack of competition and abusive practices. It could be opaque and powerful drug middlemen that we call pharmacy benefit managers and a lack of transparency on prices.
By the way, I just mentioned PBMs. There are at least 65 to 70 Senators that are cosponsors of 1 or more bills--at least 3 bills that exist out of 3 different committees--that want more transparency with PBMs, and somehow, we ought to be able to get that up. Hopefully, we will be successful before this year is out.
So I am working in all three of these areas I just told you about to advance bipartisan solutions. When voluntarily choosing to promote medications over the airways, manufacturers are already required to disclose safety and side effects. Yet, for many patients, price plays a primary role in clinical adherence.
There is a lot of value in knowing a prescription drug's list price. This is the most accessible and standardized price of a drug, which is set by the manufacturer itself.
Despite efforts by Big Pharma to stop our bill, I am confident that the American consumer will continue to demand the kind of price transparency that they deserve. President Trump, Vice President Vance, and Secretary Kennedy will also continue to fight with us.
If critics have solutions to make our bill better, come to the table, present your ideas, and work with us.
Also, I want to thank the chairman of the Finance Committee. He is a friend. He may be against this bill today, but he is very much an advocate for PBM reforms.
I thank you, Senator, for doing that.
The Finance Committee, along with several other committees in the Senate, has a bipartisan PBM reform ready to pass the Senate.
The President made it clear that he wants to see PBM transparency and accountability, and we must tackle the cost of prescription drugs through more competition, PBM reform, and, of course, through the sunshine on drug prices that Senator Durbin and I are proposing.
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