Republican Member of Ways and Means Introduces Bill on Pharma Price Controls Abroad
Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, introduced a bill that would create a chief pharmaceutical negotiator at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and would ask USTR to investigate whether Section 301 actions should be taken against high-income countries that impose price controls on American-made pharmaceuticals. The USTRx Act text was published July 26. Arrington is asking the agency to investigate if the price controls are discriminatory, if the countries deny reciprocal market access to U.S. products, and if the price controls "are not market-based or do not appropriately recognize the value of innovative medicines" and "diminish incentives for innovation in a manner that delays, prevents, or otherwise adversely impacts the introduction of new medicines in the United States."
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
"The US has led the world in developing life-saving treatments and drugs, but American taxpayers shouldn’t have to foot the bill for other countries," Arrington said in a press release announcing the bill.
Democrats have not been inclined to use trade policy to advance the pharmaceutical industry's interests, as was shown by the Democratic House Working Group's winning the argument to strip biologics exclusivity rules from the NAFTA rewrite.