A pair of bipartisan measures to lower drug prices were thrown off track Thursday by objections as senators battle over the issue.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) came to the Senate floor preparing to seek unanimous consent to pass a measure with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) which is aimed at lowering drug prices by cracking down on drug companies gaming the patent system to delay cheaper competition.
But Cornyn eventually ran out of time. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) was preparing to object to his measure, sources say, not wanting to pass one relatively incremental drug pricing measure when negotiations are still ongoing over a larger effort on the topic.
That did not sit well with Cornyn, though, who blasted Schumer, and plans to try again next week to ask for unanimous consent to pass the bill.
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“He plans to renew the request next week,” a Cornyn spokesman said. “Sen. Schumer will have to decide if he stands with the American people or the special interests fighting this bill.”
Cornyn, who is up for reelection next year, is seeking to get his piece of the drug pricing puzzle through the Senate ahead of other measures still winding their way through the process.
But Democratic leaders are looking for bigger action than just the Cornyn-Blumenthal bill.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is pushing a sweeping measure to allow the secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate drug prices. While that measure faces strong Senate GOP opposition, there is also a larger bipartisan bill in the Senate from Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
“There’s no objection to the substance of it, but I guess Sen. Schumer has been of the mind that nothing gets done unless everything gets done, and I think that’s a recipe for nothing getting done,” Cornyn told reporters on Thursday.
Blumenthal is also pushing for passing his bill through unanimous consent without waiting to deal with the rest of the drug pricing picture at the same time, splitting with Schumer.
“We are very hopeful that our bill will pass with unanimous consent next week, and we’ll be joining Sen. Cornyn in seeking its swift approval,” said a Blumenthal spokeswoman.
Further adding to the complications, another pair of bipartisan senators are also trying to pass their drug pricing measure alongside the Cornyn-Blumenthal bill, also by unanimous consent.
That measure, from Grassley and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), would require drug companies to list their prices in TV advertisements.
But Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) informed his colleagues that he was prepared to object to that bill.
“Grassley and Durbin will try to work with Toomey over the weekend to see if he will release his hold,” said a Durbin aide.
Toomey does not object to a recorded roll call vote on the Grassley-Durbin measure, his office said, but does object to quickly moving the measure through unanimous consent when he said it has not been properly vetted. Toomey also thinks showing the list price of a drug in an ad, as opposed to the share that patients would actually pay, is misleading.
“As currently constructed, the bill singles out the pharmaceutical industry and requires companies to include in advertisements misleading information that could easily deter people from seeking care,” a Toomey spokesman said. “Price transparency is worthy of robust debate to ensure it is done right. Senator Toomey looks forward to working with Senators Durbin and Grassley.”
The pharmaceutical industry, a powerful force in Washington, opposes both bills. The industry had objected even more strongly to an earlier version of Cornyn’s bill, but he worked to make changes to help address the concerns and win over his colleagues who shared the objections.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, though, said in a statement that it still opposes the bill, and that it “would fundamentally upend the biopharmaceutical innovation ecosystem.”
Source: The Hill
