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RICHMOND, VA — In a veto statement drawing heavily from Big Pharma talking points, Governor Glenn Youngkin misleadingly suggested that a Prescription Drug Affordability Board (PDAB) would have allowed “medication availability to be determined based solely on cost considerations rather than accounting for the expert opinions of healthcare professionals and the unique medical needs of individual patients.”
The governor’s statement is disingenuous, as HB570 and SB274 would have created an independent panel of health experts — with no industry conflicts of interest — to ensure certain high-cost drugs are both affordable and accessible. The board would be empowered to use “any other factors as determined by the Board through regulations adopted by the Board” when evaluating whether to set an Upper Payment Limit (UPL) on those drugs.
Both the House and the Senate versions of the bills passed with bipartisan support.
“By copy-pasting Pharma’s talking points into his veto statement without even bothering to read the text of the bill, the governor has allowed the industry to maintain a complete and total stranglehold on drug pricing,” said Freedom Virginia Executive Director Rhena Hicks. “We should center the opinions of health experts, not the profit margins of Big Pharma, when deciding whether or not a drug is affordable. The governor had a historic opportunity to sign a bipartisan bill that would have lowered the cost of medicine for Virginia families, but he chose to veto it without suggesting any other solution. Gov. Youngkin could have sent this bill back with amendments. Instead, he opted to let pharmaceutical companies continue to have unbridled power to control the cost of medicine. The fact is that medicine remains out of reach for many Virginians simply because they cannot afford their prescriptions. Governor Youngkin’s veto continues the unsustainable status quo that only benefits big pharmaceutical companies.”
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