The Louisiana House of Representatives voted 88-7 last night to approve SB 401, sending the state’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board (PDAB) legislation to Governor Jeff Landry. On Friday, the bill passed the Louisiana Senate 37-0. With the governor’s signature, the board would identify ten high-cost medicines annually and require manufacturers to disclose pricing information. The legislation does not impose price controls, set reimbursement limits, or restrict patient access to medications.
The following statement is from ALDP co-founders Michael Glassner and Jason Young:
“After months of testimony, deliberations, negotiations, and stakeholder input, Louisiana lawmakers reached an overwhelming bipartisan consensus that greater transparency around prescription-drug costs is needed.
“President Trump has helped make drug pricing a national priority, and state lawmakers across the country are responding. The Louisiana Legislature’s vote is one of the clearest examples we’ve seen anywhere this year.
“SB 401 does something straightforward and necessary: it requires drug manufacturers to explain, in a detailed, written, and accountable way, why their prices are what they are – prices that they set and that everyone else in the healthcare system must respond to, including more than 300,000 uninsured Louisianans.
“This is a transparency measure – a smoke alarm, not a sprinkler. It does not set prices, limit access, or impose reimbursement restrictions. It simply helps policymakers better understand what Louisiana patients, taxpayers, employers, and small businesses face and provides much-needed information about one of the fastest-growing pressures in healthcare and on the state budget.
“The Legislature has now spoken clearly. Louisiana deserves the facts, and SB 401 is designed to provide them.”
SB 401 is part of a four-bill package that ALDP worked on this session. The other bills passed by the Louisiana Legislature are SB 387, HB 870, and HB 1236.
About Americans for Lower Drug Prices
Americans for Lower Drug Prices (ALDP) is a bipartisan 501(c)(4) advocacy organization working to lower drug prices and enact Prescription Drug Affordability Boards at the state level. PDABs address the root cause of unaffordable medications: manufacturers’ unchecked pricing power. ALDP’s commonsense advocacy is focused on veterans, seniors, people living in rural communities, people with disabilities, and Americans who are either uninsured or underinsured, as high drug prices disproportionately harm these groups.
For more information and to hear directly from patients about their prescription drug cost struggles, visit LowerRxPrices.org.