A bipartisan drug pricing bill — introduced by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore. — looks to crack down on "big pharma's games," according to The Hill.
Here are four things to know:
1. The bill will target some of the tactics drugmakers use to overcharge taxpayers for Medicaid rebates, in turn boosting their profits.
2. In particular, the bill would grant HHS authority to reclassify a drug and recoup rebates when a manufacturer deliberately misclassifies a drug to pay lower rebates to Medicaid.
3. In introducing the bill, the lawmakers specifically mentioned Mylan, which incorrectly classified its brand-name EpiPen as a generic drug. Mylan resolved the EpiPen lawsuit with the Justice Department in 2016 for $465 million. While Mylan paid a hefty sum to resolve the lawsuit, one federal analysis found taxpayers may have overpaid by as much as $1.27 billion over a 10-year period.
4. "While families struggle to afford medicines like EpiPen, drugmakers are busy manipulating the system to squeeze taxpayers even more," Mr. Wyden told The Hill. "This bipartisan bill will crack down on big pharma's games and help prevent them from taking advantage of Medicaid, a program meant to protect the most vulnerable."