Fact Check:
Congressman Kennedy’s record on reducing prescription drug costs

Congressman Kennedy has worked tirelessly on reducing prescription drug costs since coming to Congress. In the 105th Congress, and the subsequent three Congresses he introduced legislation to reduce the price of prescription drugs, the Making Affordable Prescriptions Available to Seniors Act and the Prescription Afforability and Medicine Safety Act.

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These bills contained several provisions aimed at supporting the FDA’s generic drug programs, reducing the cost of prescription drugs, and aiding state pharmacy assistance programs. His legislation created a Federal competitive grant program, paid for by pharmaceutical company contributions, to provide additional funds to existing state pharmacy assistance programs. It also provided authorization for greater funding to the Generic Drug Application Review Program and the Generic Drug Education Campaign at the Food and Drug Administration. These current programs at FDA help assure timely access to affordable generic medicines and better educate the public on the use and equivalency of generics. And it limited the tax deductions for advertising for prescription drug manufacturers. (108th Congress H.R.2640 Prescription Affordability and Medicine Safety Act, 107th Congress HR 5350 Prescription Affordability and Medicine Safety Act, 106th Congress H.R.723 Making Affordable Prescriptions Available for Seniors Act, 105th Congress H.R.2681 Making Affordable Prescriptions Available for Seniors Act)

In addition to his own legislation, he has cosponsored various bills to make the pharmaceutical industry accountable to consumers. He cosponsored the Greater Access to Affordable Pharmaceuticals Act of 2001 that would accelerate dates of approval for a generic drug application and allow drugs to be considered a bioequivalent to a listed drug if the effects of such drug and the listed drug do not show a significant difference based on certain tests or studies. (107th Congress HR 1862) He also cosponsored the Prescription Drug Fairness for Seniors Act that required each participating manufacturer of a covered outpatient drug to make it available for purchase by each pharmacy at a price no greater than the manufacturer's average foreign price. (108th Congress HR 1400, 107th Congress HR 1400, and 106th Congress HR 664)

Finally, Congressman Kennedy has worked to improve the Medicare Part D program and make it work for seniors, rather than the pharmaceutical industry as the bill was written. He is a cosponsor of the Pharmaceutical Market Access Act that would permit pharmacists, pharmacies, wholesalers, and individuals to import qualifying drugs from certain countries into the United States (109th Congress HR 328) and the Medicare's Equitable Drugs for Seniors Act which would repeal provisions in the new Medicare Part D regulations that prohibit the Secretary of Health and Human Services from negotiating for lower drug prices. ( 109th Congress HR 376 and 108th Congress HR 3707)

He also cosponsored the Medicare Drug Formulary Protection Act that prohibits Part D prescription drug plans from removing a drug from their formulary until the beginning of each plan year or from the point a Medicare beneficiary enrolls in their plan until the end of the year in which they enroll. After the introduction of this bill, CMS announced new guidelines to ensure that all proposed formulary changes (excluding additions) must be submitted to CMS for review and approval. Beneficiaries will not lose coverage for their drugs because of a mid-year formulary change except for clear scientific evidence, cost reasons related to a new generic drug coming on the market, or new FDA or clinical information becomes available. This change by CMS was due in large part to the public outcry on this issue.(109th Congress HR 5102)