U.S. Senators Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) this week raised concerns about the risks of serious unintended consequences as the Biden administration attempts to establish a permanent government price control program for prescription drugs.

Wicker, Hyde-Smith and 23 other Republican Senators signed a letter that asks Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure to weigh impacts on health care access, research and development, and domestic manufacturing under the unprecedented price-setting scheme enacted with the Democrats’ misnamed “Inflation Reduction” bill.

Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) led the letter to highlight the outsized risks the government pricing initiative poses for patients, frontline health care providers, small businesses, and the American economy as a whole.

“As the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has confirmed, the government price controls codified under the recently enacted reconciliation legislation have the potential to increase launch prices for new medications, as well as to trigger fewer new drug approvals in the coming years,” the Senators wrote.

“Other independent analyses have projected even more catastrophic consequences, from hundreds of thousands of domestic job losses to hundreds of billions in forgone R&D dollars.   The innovation ecosystem that has made the United States the world’s unquestioned life sciences leader, bolstered by thousands of startups and small businesses, may wither under this partisan legislation, particularly in the absence of careful, deliberative implementation and assertive, consumer-oriented oversight,” the Senators continued.

“Given the profound health care, economic, and national security implications of this anomalous new federal program, we ask that you carefully consider these and other threats, from depressed drug discovery and development to diminished medical access and cascades of health care provider cuts,” the Senators said.

The letter requests responses to a series of questions regarding the implementation of the program, which is being funded with billions of taxpayer dollars.

The letter is available here and below:

Dear Secretary Becerra and Administrator Brooks-LaSure:

Congress recently acted, on a party-line basis, to establish a permanent government price-setting program for prescription drugs, financed with billions of taxpayer dollars and enforced through an unprecedented excise tax of up to 95 percent.  We write to express concerns with the disruptive and distortive administrative undertaking that the implementation of this far-reaching federal expansion will inevitably represent, as well as to raise a number of questions regarding your department’s plans for putting this new program into practice.  Given the outsize risks that the impending government pricing initiative poses for patients, frontline health care providers, small businesses, and the American economy as a whole, we urge you to weigh both direct and indirect impacts on health care access, research and development (R&D), and domestic manufacturing as you take the first steps toward implementing this program. 

As the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has confirmed, the government price controls codified under the recently enacted reconciliation legislation have the potential to increase launch prices for new medications, as well as to trigger fewer new drug approvals in the coming years.  Scores of life-threatening conditions, from cancer to Alzheimer’s and sickle cell disease, could see a substantial decline in possible treatment options on the horizon.  Moreover, based on CBO’s analysis, some manufacturers may choose to terminate participation in Medicare and Medicaid altogether as a result of the compulsory new price-setting program, jeopardizing access to a range of therapies and cures for the most vulnerable Americans.  Other independent analyses have projected even more catastrophic consequences, from hundreds of thousands of domestic job losses to hundreds of billions in forgone R&D dollars.  The innovation ecosystem that has made the United States the world’s unquestioned life sciences leader, bolstered by thousands of startups and small businesses, may wither under this partisan legislation, particularly in the absence of careful, deliberative implementation and assertive, consumer-oriented oversight.

Given the profound health care, economic, and national security implications of this anomalous new federal program, we ask that you carefully consider these and other threats, from depressed drug discovery and development to diminished medical access and cascades of health care provider cuts.  In light of the urgent importance of clarity and caution regarding the forthcoming implementation of this colossal government initiative, please provide the following information by the close of business on October 28, 2022: