Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate Dec. 18 that calls for the creation of a government-run pharmaceutical manufacturer to mass-produce generic drugs and lower prices.
Here are four things to know:
1. The bill, dubbed the Affordable Drug Manufacturing Act, aims to increase competition and help improve new companies' ability to enter the generic market by authorizing the public manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients, among other initiatives.
"In market after market, competition is dying as a handful of giant companies spend millions to rig the rules, insulate themselves from accountability, and line their pockets at the expense of American families," Ms. Warren said in a statement. "The solution here is not to replace markets, but to fix them. The Affordable Drug Manufacturing Act will introduce more competition into the prescription drug market, and bring down prices for consumers."
2. The bill proposes the federal government create an Office of Drug Manufacturing within HHS to manufacture select generic drugs and offer them to consumers at a fair price to guarantee affordable patient access.
3. Several senators have similarly introduced bills targeting the pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., introduced a bill allowing the federal government to block price increases on certain drugs.
4. However, several members of the generic drug lobby voiced their opposition to Ms. Warren's proposed bill. In a statement to Politico, the Association for Accessible Medicines said the legislation represents "an unrealistic distraction from policies that would meaningfully reduce drug prices, such as combating patent abuse and cultivating a robust biosimilars market."