WASHINGTON D.C. – Minnesota Senator Tina Smith says she wants to hold drug companies accountable for high prices.
Smith has introduced legislation she says will benefit seniors, families, and taxpayers.
“My bill is a comprehensive effort to bring prescription drug prices down—which is the number one thing Minnesotans talk to me about,” says Senator Smith, a member of the Senate Health Committee. “We need to improve competition, make the big drug companies tell us exactly how they’re spending all the money that they’re making and allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices with these drug companies. Right now, these companies are just naming their price and Americans have to pay it. When you hear about people rationing their life-saving medication because they can’t afford the dosage recommended by their physicians, you know we have a real problem, and I want to fix it.”
Smith says her “Affordable Medications Act” would require drug companies to report how much they spend on research, advertising, and CEO pay. The bill would also create an innovation fund for new antibiotics and public funding of clinical drug trials.
The legislation is being co-sponsored by five candidates for President: Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of New Hampshire, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.
The National Republica Senatorial Committee issued the following statement about Senator Smith's proposed bill:
“Tina Smith and her husband have profited substantially from their investments in one of big pharma biggest opiod pushers,” says NRSC spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez. “Tina Smith’s efforts to trick her constituents into thinking she’s fighting for them while she’s profiting off the companies driving up prescription costs is disgusting. Minnesota voters deserve better."
