Hillary Clinton plans to go after companies that dramatically hike the prices of drugs or medical devices with a new set of policy proposals released Friday morning.
The Democratic presidential nominee, who has already released a drug reform plan as Americans are increasingly concerned about the issue, said recent news that EpiPen maker Mylan hiked prices by 500 percent shows the government needs stronger tools to crack down on pharmaceutical companies.
Under Clinton’s proposal, the government could impose new fines on drug makers seeking “unjustified price increases” and use those funds to expand access. She also wants to allow emergency importation of treatments from other countries whose safety standards are as high as in the U.S.
“Over the past year, we’ve seen far too many examples of drug companies raising prices excessively for long-standing, life-saving treatments with little or no new innovation or R&D,” Clinton said in a statement from her campaign. “It’s time to move beyond talking about these price hikes and start acting to address them.
“I’m ready to hold drug companies accountable when they try to put profits ahead of patients, instead of back into research and innovation,” the statement said.
Mylan provoked broad outrage from Democrats and Republicans over its decision to increase the price for a two-pack of EpiPen injectors to $608. The pens are used to deliver emergency doses of medication to patients with allergies.
