WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) applauded a move by the Administration to implement a piece of Senator King’s bipartisan legislative efforts to require the disclosure of drug prices in advertising. The rule, first proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and finalized today by the Department of Health and Human Services, reflects language from the King-backed Drug-Price Transparency in Communications Act and requires pharmaceutical companies to list prices in their prescription drugs in direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertisements. The rule will help to empower patients, promote transparency, and lower prescription drug costs.

“For decades, pharmaceutical companies have been able to advertise their drugs to the public without disclosing their prices, and all the while, those prices have continued to rise. No more,” said Senator King. “This new rule, which has significant bipartisan support, will bring much-needed accountability and transparency to prescription drug costs, so patients can fully understand what they’re being sold. This is an important step in the fight to provide real relief for American people struggling with the costs of prescription drugs, and I will continue pushing the Administration and my colleagues in Congress to enact additional changes to build on this important work.”

Senator King’s bipartisan work on this issue has attracted support from the AARP, American Medical Association, American Hospital Association, Federation of American Hospitals, America’s Health Insurance Plans, BlueCross BlueShield Association, and the Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing. Senators King, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) advocated for the inclusion of an amendment based on the Drug-Price Transparency in Communications Act in the September 2018 “minibus” funding bill, but the provision was stripped from the final bill.

In 2017, the pharmaceutical industry spent more than $6 billion in DTC advertisements, which drive up health care costs by steering patients towards more expensive medications. The average American sees nine DTC prescription drug ads each day.  Studies show that patients are more likely to ask their doctor for a specific brand-name medication, and doctors are more likely to prescribe one, when they have been marketed directly with drug advertisements.  For these reasons, most countries have banned DTC prescription drug advertising, with the United States and New Zealand being the only two developed countries that allow it. 

In addition to his support of the legislation mirroring this now-final rule, Senator King has supported a number of commonsense bills to drive down the costs of medication in the United States. In February, he joined a bipartisan group of colleagues to introduce legislation that would deter pharmaceutical companies from blocking cheaper generic alternatives from entering the marketplace – a proposal that would save consumers billions of dollars.  In January, he cosponsored three bills to reduce the costs of prescription drugs. The first bill, the End Taxpayer Subsidies for Drug Ads Act, would prohibit pharmaceutical drug manufacturers from claiming tax deductions for consumer advertising expenses, and the Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act would allow patients, pharmacists and wholesalers to import safe, affordable medicine from Canada and other major countries. The Empowering Medicare Seniors to Negotiate Drug Prices Act would allow for Medicare to negotiate the best possible price of prescription drugs to cut costs for nearly 43 million seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D. Current law only allows for bargaining by pharmaceutical companies and prohibits Medicare from doing so.