Washington, D.C. – Today, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee Kevin Brady (R-TX) released the following statement after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published a partial analysis on H.R. 3, Speaker Pelosi’s drug pricing legislation:  

“CBO’s report confirms House Democrats’ ‘dictate or destroy’ price controls only serve to hurt the development of future cures and damage American innovation.  To protect the hope of medical breakthroughs, Republicans reject H.R. 3, which would limit Americans’ access to the life-saving medicines many families are counting on.

“Sadly, this partial analysis only scratches the surface of H.R. 3.  If this is any indication of what else is to come, the Speaker should come back to the table, and work with Republicans on bipartisan solutions that can be signed into law to lower out-of-pocket costs for patients and seniors by cracking down on overpriced drugs, empowering patients to choose the most affordable medicines for them, and eliminating the incentives in Medicare that reward bad actors and lead to higher prices.” 

Background: CBO estimates that pharmaceutical manufacturers’ earnings would decline under Title I of H.R. 3, and that manufacturers would reduce spending on research and development as a result.  Although CBO has not completed its full analysis of the bill’s implications for new-drug development, its preliminary estimate is that a reduction in revenues over the next 10 years of $0.5 trillion to $1 trillion would lead to a reduction of 8 to 15 new drugs coming to market.

Months ago, Republicans from multiple committees began bipartisan work to modernize Medicare Part D and lower out-of-pocket costs for seniors. That work has stopped and instead House Democrats are pursuing a partisan path that is dead on arrival in the Senate.