Dems scrap prescription drug affordability board, set to pass compromise bills they say will bring down drug costs

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Democrats are abandoning the idea of creating a prescription drug affordability board.

It comes after Democrats passed bills to do just that in previous years, only to have them vetoed by former Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin. 

“There have been people that have been hung up on a board,” Democratic Senator Creigh Deeds (D-Charlottesville) told 8News. 

Democrats in both the House and Senate passed separate versions of a bill in their respective chambers again this year to create a prescription drug affordability board, but are now changing those bills to replace a potential board with an advisory panel that will look into reducing prescription drug costs in Virginia. 

Among other things, that panel would consider the role pharmacy benefit managers, the so-called middleman of the prescription drug marketplace, play in the costs of drugs -- something that won over Republican Delegate Keith Hodges (R-Middlesex).

“That information will include financial information, network fees, the price paid to the pharmacy, dispensing fees, totally 100% transparent, which is what you want,” Hodges explained. 

Meanwhile, Deeds, who wrote the Senate version of the original bill and has signed off on the compromise proposal, said the bills also include potential cost savings for Virginians. That’s because the federal government has already set upper price limits on 25 commonly used drugs for conditions like diabetes and heart failure, but only Medicare patients see the potential cost savings. 

However, the compromise bills would extend those upper price limits to people who have certain other types of health insurance. 

“The real purpose of this bill was to bring down the costs of prescription drugs, whether it’s through a prescription drug affordability board, or through magic or wherever, the key was to bring down the costs of drugs, and that’s what this bill does,” Deeds said. 

However, the Virginia Biotechnology Association said the bills would have negative effects on the pharmaceutical industry. 

“Any kind of artificial prices, whether it be from the federal price negotiations or state price negotiations, they’re still artificially set and will drive away innovation from this space,” Newby said.

The compromise bills are set to pass sometime this week.