You can add Michigan to the list of states where lawmakers hope to legislate a fix for high drug prices.
A group of House and Senate Democrats plan to introduce a bill to create a Prescription Drug Consumer Protection Board for reviewing price hikes and to empower the state attorney general to investigate any drug maker that takes “grossly excessive” price increases. Companies would be required to submit documents justifying price increases above 10 percent in one year, or 30 percent in five years. And drug makers would be fined $100,000 for failing to justify those increases.
“Prescription drug prices are out of control in Michigan, and we’ve heard that over and over, from every corner of the state,” said House Democratic Leader Sam Singh, in a statement on Monday. “So far, nothing has been done to address this or to help the people in our state who still have to choose between paying their bills or buying the medicine they need to survive. … We’re trying to work with industry” to find a solution.
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