FAIR drug prices? Yes please

It sounds like an oxymoron. The title of new legislation being pushed in Washington is the FAIR Drug Pricing Act. We don’t often hear “fair” and “drug prices” in the same sentence. Turns out the word FAIR in this sentence is an acronym, standing for fair accountability and innovate research. But the goal is to make drug pricing fair, or at least understandable, which currently it is not. This is a bipartisan bill, introduced by Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin. If passed, this legislation would, for the first time, force drug companies to justify their massive price increases. That is long overdue. We have heard too many stories of things like the EpiPen skyrocketing from $100 to $600. That may have outraged the public, but such massive price hikes remain common in the pharmaceutical industry. This bill would require drug companies to provide to the public more information about planned drug price increases, including research and development costs. It wouldn’t prevent the price hikes, but would make the drug companies justify them. Prescription drug spending in the U.S. has reached a record high of $425 billion a year, and climbing. The reality is drug companies are getting filthy rich, on the backs of sick citizens. Those Americans should at least have more information about what they are getting for their money.