Including the EPIC Act in Reconciliation is a Key First Step Toward Safeguarding Innovation and Protecting Older Patients
CONTACT: Michael DeSantis
michael@americancommitment.org
Washington, D.C. — March 18, 2025 — Today, Commitment to Seniors, a project of American Commitment, launched a national and multi-state grassroots mobilization and paid media campaign urging Congress to eliminate the Biden Pill Penalty and include the Ensuring Pathways to Innovative Cures (EPIC) Act in reconciliation.
The Biden administration’s disastrous Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) created a harmful provision known as the “Pill Penalty,” which imposes price controls on small-molecule drugs after just nine years, compared to thirteen years for biologics. This provision discourages the development of lifesaving small-molecule, easy-to-use drugs, like pills and tablets, that many seniors rely on. As a result, fewer treatments and cures will be available, and the available ones will be more likely to be injections rather than pills.
According to recent polling by McLaughlin and Associates, 86% of senior voters are concerned that the Biden Pill Penalty will lead to less investments in American research and development of cutting-edge medicines and therapies that can prevent, treat, and cure diseases, including cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
Beyond the Biden Pill Penalty, the IRA has wreaked havoc on Medicare, driving up health insurance premiums, limiting drug choices at the pharmacy counter, and discouraging innovation. Instead of lowering costs for seniors, Biden’s policies broke Medicare, and older Americans are paying the price. The whole failed law should be repealed, but the absolute minimum Congress should do is end the pill penalty.
Thankfully, there is bipartisan momentum in Congress behind the EPIC Act, which would grant small molecule medicines the same 13-year protection from price controls that other medicines receive. This reform is widely supported by seniors, with 82% believing it is crucial to eliminating the Biden Pill Penalty.
“We cannot let the Inflation Reduction Act’s disastrous drug price controls continue to adversely impact older Americans,” shared Phil Kerpen, President of American Commitment. “Congress must protect seniors’ access to new, lifesaving treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s diabetes, and other diseases. Eliminating the Biden Pill Penalty is a critical step to cleaning up his administration’s Medicare mess.”
“The EPIC Act offers a source of hope for the countless seniors who rely on small-molecule treatments for chronic conditions. Congress must eliminate the Biden Pill Penalty by including the EPIC Act in reconciliation so that older Americans can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that private-sector investments in groundbreaking therapies for chronic diseases will be protected,” said Senior Advisor to Commitment to Seniors, Bob Johnson.
Click here to learn more about this campaign and why Congress must eliminate the Biden Pill Penalty by including the EPIC Act in reconciliation.
+++
American Commitment is dedicated to restoring and protecting our nation’s commitment to free markets, economic growth, constitutionally limited government, property rights, and individual freedom. American Commitment engages in critical public policy fights over the size and intrusiveness of government through direct advocacy, strategic policy analysis, and grassroots mobilization. Visit us online at www.AmericanCommitment.org.