Yesterday, under intense pressure from the powerful pharmaceutical industry lobby, California Assembly Member Dan Chiu withheld bill AB 463, the Pharmaceutical Cost Transparency Act of 2015. A vote on the bill had already been postponed for a week in order to allow Assembly Member Chiu more time to address various concerns raised by colleagues in the Health Committee. But rather than see the bill fail for lack of votes, Assembly Member Chiu opted to hold the bill over as a “two-year bill”, which would allow for reintroduction next legislative year, and gives supporters of the bill an opportunity to continue to work toward its adoption.
We have previously written (here, here, here, and here) on the bill’s groundbreaking efforts to require the pharmaceutical industry to report its costs for the development and manufacture of all drugs costing over $10,000 for a course of treatment. This requirement would shine a light on the dubious claims by the industry that high costs of R&D justify extremely high prices for medicines.
For some illuminating tweets on the bill by pharmaceutical industry lobbyist Kassy Perry, see this blog.