House Drug Pricing Bill Serves Patients, Public Health

Legislation recently passed by the House of Representatives, the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, introduces critically needed and significant steps to reduce costs and improve access to life-saving therapies for conditions including HIV and hepatitis C. Importantly, the legislation also brings essential resources to combat antibiotic resistance, find and develop new infection fighting drugs and bring them to market.

Provisions in the bill will improve access to effective medicines that treat HIV and cure hepatitis C for people who need them, preventing the transmission of both infections and helping the United States to end both epidemics.

Equally critical to public health, the bill invests more than $1 billion of new resources for the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to support research on antibiotic resistance, stewardship, and the commercialization of new antibiotics at a pivotal time. Data released in the CDC AR Threats Report in November indicates that at least 2.8 million people in the United States are sickened by antibiotic resistant infections each year and that 35,000 people in this country die as a result. At the same time, while investments in antibiotic research and development by large companies diminish, small companies responsible for discovering and developing these needed new medicines struggle to stay in business. The new investments provided in the bill will be crucial to the sustainability of the antibiotics market, while the funding the legislation directs to stewardship will support efforts to protect the effectiveness of existing antibiotics.

IDSA and HIVMA strongly support this legislation and will continue working toward final legislation that improves affordability and access to needed medicines while providing needed investments to combat antibiotic resistance and support new antibiotic development.