Sanders Statement on White House Proposal to Consider Price As a Factor In Breaking Patent Monopolies on Some Taxpayer-Funded Prescription Drugs

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, on Thursday issued the following statement after the White House announced a new framework to help guide the use of march-in rights to break the patent monopoly on some taxpayer-funded prescription drugs:

The Administration’s proposal to, for the first time, consider high prices as a factor in determining whether to break the monopolies of taxpayer-funded prescription drugs is a step forward in the right direction. But, in my view, much more must be done. The American people are sick and tired of seeing hundreds of billions of their tax dollars going to the research and development of new treatments and cures only to end up paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. In my view, the Administration should reinstate and expand the reasonable pricing clause to require the pharmaceutical industry to charge affordable prices for new prescription drugs developed with taxpayer support. It should also move to substantially lower the price of the prostate cancer drug Xtandi by allowing companies to manufacture generic versions of this treatment. This is a drug that was invented with taxpayer dollars by scientists at UCLA and can be purchased in Canada for one-fifth the U.S. price.