Rep. Angie Craig Leads Bill to Lower Cost of Life-Saving Drugs

Yesterday, U.S. Rep. Angie Craig introduced the Price Relief, Innovation, and Competition for Essential Drugs (PRICED) Act along with Reps. Jan Schakowsky, Rosa DeLauro, Lloyd Doggett, Andy Levin, and Raja Krishnamoorthi to lower prescription drug costs for Minnesotans and increase competition for biologic drugs.

Biologic drugs are some of the most expensive on the market, representing 2% of drugs on the market, but 40% of overall drug costs. As the former head of Human Resources for a major medical manufacturing company, Rep. Craig oversaw the healthcare plans for thousands of employees and learned firsthand about the need to address these skyrocketing costs.

The PRICED Act would decrease the market exclusivity period for biologic drugs from 12 years to five years, which would increase competition and allow more affordable generic options to compete with brand-name drugs to lower costs.

"For far too long, brand-name pharmaceutical companies have been profiting at the expense of Minnesota families by blocking competition, which makes life-saving drugs unaffordable," said Rep. Craig. "I've spoken with folks across my district who all say the same thing: they need Congress to take action on prescription drug costs now. I'm proud to be a champion for lowering costs to ease the burden of prescription drug prices on Minnesota families."

In addition to introducing the PRICED Act, Rep. Craig has also cosponsored several bills to address prescription drug costs, including the CREATES Act, the Bringing Low-cost Options and Competition while Keeping Incentives for New Generics (BLOCKING) Act of 2019, and the Protecting Consumer Access to Generic Drugs Act of 2019, which would all help bring more affordable generic drugs to the market. She is also a Co-Chair of the New Dems Health Care Task Force where she works to develop big ideas into policy proposals to lower the cost of healthcare and expand access to more Americans.