Medicare Part D drug-price negotiation bill offered by Democrats

Modern Healthcare: Congressional Democrats on Thursday introduced a bill to force drugmakers to negotiate prices within Medicare Part D or face losing their patent exclusivity.

Under the proposal, introduced by Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the government could approve a generic competitor if a branded-drug manufacturer doesn't agree to a reasonable Part D price for a given medication. This would give teeth to HHS Secretary Alex Azar's mandate to negotiate prices, but avoids the controversy of excluding certain drugs from coverage under Part D.

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