FACT CHECK: Drug Pricing

Grassley Works to lower drug prices. 

• Senator Grassley was a key player in creating Medicare Part D, the first outpatient prescription drug benefit for our nation’s seniors.
• He fights to lower prescription drug costs by writing bipartisan legislation. His legislation would cap out-of-pocket expenses, save seniors $72 billion, end skyrocketing annual drug price increases, save taxpayers $95 billion, and hold Big Pharma and powerful pharmaceutical middlemen accountable.
• Democrats are all hat and no cattle on prescription drug reforms. Senator Grassley filed an amendment just last month with ten of his colleagues to pass his bipartisan prescription drug pricing bill he wrote with Oregon Senator Ron Wyden. It was ignored along with other reforms to hold Big Pharma and powerful pharmaceutical middleman accountable, showing that Democrats could have chosen to pass drug pricing reform on a bipartisan basis had they wanted to. 
• On Insulin prices, Democrats tried to ram through a measure that broke Senate parliamentarian rules while ignoring the most vulnerable uninsured. Republicans offered a solution to lower insulin prices for the most vulnerable, but all Democrats voted no. 
• Grassley has introduced and voted for bills that would improve access and affordability to the millions of Americans who depend on insulin and so many others.
• Grassley supports a bipartisan plan to cap insulin out-of-pocket costs while also addressing the drivers of price increases – namely powerful middlemen called pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).
• Grassley led a bipartisan investigation into insulin manufacturers and PBMs. He uncovered how insulin is priced and some of the abusive tactics drug companies use to maximize profit at the expense of patients. After hearing directly from Iowans, Senator Grassley also investigated the EpiPen pricing and how it was misclassified to get a better rebate from the government. In doing so, Senator Grassley found a weak point in federal law that allowed companies to game the system. From this investigation, Senator Grassley introduced the Right Rebate Act, which protects taxpayers and patients from abuse.

Mike Franken would rather lie to Iowans than tell them the truth.  

• Mike Franken claims Senator Grassley has not introduced a pharmaceutical bill since 2006.  The above facts prove this to be a complete lie. 
• He also says Senator Grassley is bought and paid for by Big Pharma: 
  • The Big Pharma and PBM CEOs that Grassley hauled in before an oversight hearing on skyrocketing drug prices, and even threatened to subpoena would beg to differ. Clearly, political donations have no bearing on Senator Grassley’s work.  
  • His two-year insulin investigation was highly opposed by Big Pharma. He made records public they didn’t want this country to see. People have a right to know how their drugs are priced.  
  • Democrats praise Senator Grassley’s bipartisan work on drug pricing. Take the Democrat chairman of the Finance Committee, Sen. Wyden from Oregon’s statement: “[Big Pharma was] relentless in fighting what Senator Grassley is talking about and has been for two years.”
• Franken supports the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which allows the government to dictate Medicare prescription drug costs without addressing the actual drivers of drug costs.
  • This will reduce competition in the marketplace, which further drives up costs, and it will stymie innovation, resulting in fewer miracle cures and other medicines that Americans need. Independent non-partisan research has confirmed government price controls will reduce cures.

###