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Lawmakers introduce legislation to prevent prescription drug price hikes

Posted at 10:15 PM, Feb 06, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-06 23:19:22-05

Senator Kamala Harris and several other lawmakers are pushing new legislation to prevent price hikes on prescription drugs.

A group of Democratic senators teamed up to introduce a new bill Wednesday called the Forcing Limits on Abusive and Tumultuous (FLAT) Prices Act of 2019.

Lawmakers say FLAT will limit the government granted monopoly period for medications if a pharmaceutical company significantly increases its prices. They say this will enable lower-cost generic drugs to come to the market earlier.

“No one should be forced to forgo lifesaving medication because they can’t afford it,” said Senator Kamala Harris. “It’s unconscionable that drug companies jack up prices on medications when there are no affordable alternatives for patients to turn to. This is an abuse of our patent system and it needs to stop. I’m proud to join my colleagues today to introduce legislation that would prevent this from happening and level the playing field between consumers and pharmaceutical companies.”