A lobbying group that represents drugmakers including Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson aired ads slamming the drug pricing bill trudging through Congress, The Hill reported July 25.
The proposed legislation aims to do three things: require drugmakers to reimburse Medicare if their prices surpass inflation rates, allow the HHS negotiation power when it comes to pricing drugs, and lowering the copay for Medicare and Medicaid recipients.
With a six-figure check, the National Association of Manufacturers launched ads targeting the bill, according to The Hill.
"Price controls are a hidden tax on manufacturers that harms innovation, competitiveness and R&D investments in new cures," the ad's narrator says. "Politicians shouldn't force price controls on Americans that harm manufacturers' ability to develop innovative, new cures to diseases."
Some features of the bill are expected to pass, such as the Medicare and Medicaid copay limitation, but others face an unclear future since they were part of President Joe Biden's once larger Build Back Better bill, which legislators have whittled down for months.