Cost uncertainty follows prescription price cap bill in Senate

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Several Illinois Democrats have made a late-session push to create a state board that would impose price caps on prescription drugs.

Prescription Drug Affordability Board legislation remained in the Illinois Senate going into the final weekend of the spring legislative session after financial questions emerged in the House.

State Rep. Nabeela Syed, D-Palatine, held a press conference with state Sens. Graciela Guzmán, D-Chicago, and Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet, on Friday to lobby for the board that would impose price caps on certain drugs.

Syed said pharmaceutical industry advocates pushed back because the PDAB would affect their bottom line.

“Their efforts to dwindle down our legislation and to remove upper payment limits, components that actually would give our legislation teeth and the ability to reign in costs, we refused to back down in those areas,” Syed said.

Pharmaceutical and Research Manufacturers of America said data from the federal Inflation Reduction Act shows that government price-setting is failing to deliver on its promises to patients while creating new risks to innovation, access and affordability.

Senate Bill 3496 returned to the Senate for concurrence after clearing the House by a vote of 62-39 on May 21.

Before House members voted, Syed moved that the bill’s fiscal notes be ruled inapplicable.

Republican state Rep. Patrick Windhorst, R-Metropolis, urged a no vote.

“What exactly will be the cost of this bill? What impact will this bill have on our state? And yet here we are again, avoiding what is in the rules and in the law so we will know what the cost of things are that we’re voting on,” Windhorst said.

Syed said on Friday that the program’s cost would be about $750,000 and would be paid for by fees on drug manufacturers.

Syed said she has engaged with budgeteers on the House side in an attempt to land a $250,000 appropriation needed to get the board started before it collects fees.

When asked on Friday how close the bill was to getting enough votes to pass in the Senate, Guzmán said the conversations were ongoing.