Pricey prescriptions: Golden introduces bill to stop large drug price hikes

NATIONWIDE (WGME) - As the cost of prescription drugs continues to rise for Mainers and insurance companies, Congressman Jared Golden (D-Maine) introduced a bill on Wednesday aimed at addressing the issue.

Golden said his bill, The Forcing Limits on Abusive and Tumultuous (FLAT) Drug Prices Act of 2019, would help lower drug costs by addressing large price increases from pharmaceutical companies.

"We need to make sure when they do raise prices it's because the cost of producing and bringing them to market has gone up and not because they're just trying to squeeze every little penny they can out of consumers because they have a health care problem, like diabetes," Congressman Golden said during an interview with CBS 13 from Washington, D.C.

Golden said his goal is to make healthcare more affordable for working Maine people by attacking skyrocketing drug costs.

More than 46,000 Mainers saw an average price increase of more than 50% in the cost of their prescription drugs in just one year, according to data from the Maine Health Data Organization.

[Related: Thousands of Mainers see cost of their prescription drugs increase 50%]

The medications include those to treat diabetes, cancer, and stroke.

Golden talked with us this week's I-Team investigation into insulin prices.

[Related: Maine families struggle with soaring cost of insulin]

"Your station has actually recently done a story about the rising cost of insulin back home in Maine, and I think you can see the connection right there. The way this bill works is it goes after drug companies that have introduced a new drug into the market and have a monopoly on the product for a set number of years," Golden explained.

Golden's bill would reduce the exclusivity period for a drug, granted by the FDA, if its price goes up by more than 10% in one year, 18% within two years, or 25% within three years.

Cheaper generics could then come to the market sooner, Golden explained.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced companion legislation in the Senate earlier this month.

A spokesperson for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a trade group representing pharmaceutical companies, said she couldn't provide a comment until they have a chance to review the bill.

Representatives Sean Casten (IL-06), Elissa Slotkin (MI-08), Gil Cisneros (CA-39), Max Rose (NY-11), and Chellie Pingree (ME-01) cosponsored Golden’s bill.