Is Congress (finally) getting serious about soaring prescription drug prices?

You might not have seen it on the network news, but some in Congress are talking about how to combat rising prescription drug prices.

In late July, the Antitrust Subcommittee of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee discussed how to keep pharmaceutical companies from blocking the manufacture and sale of less-expensive generic medications.

Under current Food and Drug Administration rules, generic companies often must buy samples of the drug they want to duplicate from the name-brand company that originally developed the formula. Sounds simple enough, except drug makers can (and reportedly do) block future competition by refusing to sell samples to these potential competitors.

The U.S. House and Senate are considering legislation to allow generic-drug companies to demand the samples in court. But there’s no time line.

“When drug companies can succeed in delaying generic entry, American consumers will pay higher prices for prescription drugs,” Markus Meier, acting head of competition for the Federal Trade Commission, testified, according to a Reuters news report.

Read more about what’s behind sky-rocketing prescription drug prices and find tips to lower your costs on Voices’ Rx issue page. Voices for Affordable Health also invites you to join others who have shared their stories about how rising costs have affected them.