|
 |
 |
|
Sanders bill aims to lower HIV drug costs
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is pushing a bill to end exclusive marketing rights for new HIV and AIDS drugs and replace them with rewards of money from the government.
The measure would stop drug makers from setting high prices during the monopoly phases for new treatments, which reduces access to the drugs for many patients.
Sanders, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging, noted that many HIV and AIDS patients die because they cannot afford antiretroviral drugs.
He cited one treatment, Atripla, that costs "more than $25,000 per person per year" in the United States. Its generic counterpart costs $200.
"The average American would be very upset to know people are dying not because we can't cure them, but [because of] the cost to save their life," Sanders said in a hearing Tuesday.
The rewards are designed to replace the profits drug makers would otherwise make during their monopoly periods, Sanders said.
Panelists in a hearing Tuesday estimated that the measure would reduce the price of antiretroviral drugs by 90 percent or more.
"The bottom line is that the goal of our laws and policies for medicines must be to develop drugs as quickly as possible … and to get them out to every person who needs them as soon as possible," Sanders said.
By reducing the costs of antiretrovirals, the measure would also save federal and state health programs money, Sanders's office said.
Haley Muse contributed.
—This post was updated at 4:19 p.m.
