Rice, other Dems, back alternate bill letting government negotiate prescription drug prices

WASHINGTON — Long Island Rep. Kathleen Rice and two fellow moderate Democrats said Tuesday they oppose their party’s measures in the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act that would allow the government to negotiate lower prescription drug prices.

Rice, of Garden City, and Reps. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) and Scott Peters (D-Calif.) offered in its place a narrower negotiated drug-price bill, one that they said would preserve innovation by pharmaceutical companies and might gain Republican support.

The defection of the three Democrats from the party line puts into jeopardy the popular drug price reduction measure being considered in the House Energy and Commerce committee and that is backed by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

"I support many of the proposals being considered this week, but I do not support advancing policies that are not fiscally responsible and jeopardize the bill’s final passage," Rice said in a statement. Rice serves on the committee.

Rice was not available to explain her statement, said her spokesman Stuart Malec, because she was engaged in the committee’s working session Tuesday as it considered a range of issues under the Senate Budget resolution’s reconciliation instructions.

A vote on the measure could come as soon as Tuesday or early Wednesday morning, as the committee appeared headed to its second late night session.

"Democrats are committed to leveling the playing field and reining in the soaring cost of prescription drug prices for the American people," said Henry Connelly, Pelosi’s communications director in a statement.

"The Energy and Commerce markup of the Build Back Better Act is ongoing and the Chairman continues to work to favorably report out all of the Committee’s reconciliation legislative recommendations," he said.

The measure that Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), the committee chair, put forward would allow Medicare to negotiate prices with drug companies for the most expensive and commonly used drugs with no competition, starting with 25 eligible drugs and moving up to 50 drugs.

Prices would be capped at 120% of the average prices of a group of other countries, and the measure would levy an excise tax of up to 95% of a drug’s sales if the company that developed it refused to negotiate or didn’t agree with the price.

In contrast, the bill supported by Rice has a more limited scope, allowing Medicare to negotiate price concessions of 25% to 35% on drugs that don’t have competition on the market and aren’t protected by exclusivity.

That bill would be more acceptable to the pharmaceutical industry, but a group founded a few years ago to push for government-driven lower drug prices expressed disappointment.

"It is unfortunate that Reps. Peters, Rice, Schrader are turning their backs on patients, going against the wishes of voters in their districts, and doing the bidding of Big Pharma. There will no doubt be a price to pay in the future," said David Mitchell, a cancer patient and founder of advocacy group Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, in a statement.