KEI provided these comments to the Senate HELP Committee staff on July 10, 2023, regarding a draft bill dealing with pandemic preparation and response.
The specific issue KEI was asked to comment on concerned the proposal by Senator Sanders for an obligation to provide reasonable prices on products that receive funding from BARDA and CDC.
KEI’s comments discussed the proposed language on reasonable pricing, the fact that it only deals with BARDA and CDC, addressed one issue regarding the experience at the NIH on its reasonable pricing clause from 1989 to 1995, proposed a limited and transparent waiver for the reasonable pricing clause, and provided examples of recent reference pricing clauses in COVID 19 contracts.
The draft bill, assuming the link still works, is here:
https://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/pahpa_discussion_draft.pdf