DENVER — The following statement was issued by Lucy Westerfield, deputy executive director of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, following the Colorado state legislature’s vote to pass SB 21-175, a bill that establishes a prescription drug affordability board designed to deliver relief to Coloradans suffering from high drug prices:
“The passage of SB 21-175 is a huge win for Colorado patients who have struggled with outrageous prescription drug prices for far too long. We are grateful to the Colorado state legislature for standing with patients and passing this groundbreaking bill to establish a prescription drug affordability board and meaningfully lower drug prices. We look forward to Governor Polis signing this bill into law.”
Background:
- If signed into law, SB 21-175 would create a prescription drug affordability board that would:
- Perform affordability reviews of prescription drugs;
- Establish upper payment limits for prescription drugs that are determined to be unaffordable for Coloradans. This is the first bill in the nation to provide this authority;
- Investigate, review, and establish more affordable prices for the most expensive and unaffordable prescription drugs;
- Investigate and review when drug companies sharply increase the price of a specific drug.
- Colorado patient Kris Garcia, who lives with multiple bleeding disorders including hemophilia, advocated for SB 21-175 at a March press conference and then again at a May legislative hearing. Garcia relies on a medication called Humate-P, which costs $10,000 per vial.
- Patients For Affordable Drugs Now mobilized Colorado residents to make more than 800 phone calls to legislators asking them to support the bill.
- SB 21-175 passed out of the state legislature on June 8 and is headed to Colorado Governor Jared Polis’ desk, where he is expected to sign it into law in the coming weeks.
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