Vermont is poised to become the first state requiring drug companies to explain their price increases.
Vermont state Rep. Christopher Pearson, a member of the Vermont Progressive Party from the state’s largest city, Burlington, and a key supporter of the legislation, noted prescription drugs often sell for far less in other countries and offered another reason for high prices: the inability of Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate better prices under federal law.
Priscilla VanderVeer, spokeswoman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said Vermont is the first state to see a transparency bill pass both houses of its Legislature.
If the governor signs the bill, which is likely, it wouldn’t be the first time one of the nation’s smallest states in both size and population has taken on big business. Vermont in 2007 passed a law to restrict prescription “data mining” by companies that track doctors’ prescribing habits and sell the information to drug companies, but the U.S. Supreme Court shot it down in 2011. The food industry so far has failed to block a Vermont law to require labeling of genetically modified food that is set to take effect July 1.
Several other states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California and Virginia, have had drug-explanation measures like Vermont’s under consideration this year and in 2015.