Maryland House passes bill aimed at drug price gouging
Maryland's House of Delegates passed H.B. 631 by a 137-4 vote on Monday. The bill would allow the state's attorney general to sue drug manufacturers, and would authorize courts to levy civil penalties, in cases of "price gouging" for an "essential" off-patent or generic drug. The bill now heads to Maryland's Senate.
The bill would require the Maryland Medical Assistance Program to notify the AG if the cost -- either the wholesale acquisition (WAC) cost or the price paid by the program -- of an essential medicine rises 50% or more over a one-year period. The AG could then demand that the manufacturer disclose production costs and justify the price increase, and could ask a circuit court to require that the company make the drug available to state health plans at its cost prior to the price hike...