Commitment to Seniors Launches Campaign Urging Congress to Eliminate the Biden “Pill Penalty” by Including the EPIC Act in Reconciliation

 

Commitment to Seniors, a project of American Commitment, has launched a national and multi-state grassroots mobilization and paid media campaign urging Congress to eliminate the Biden pill penalty by including 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 ones that are available 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 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  The whole failed law should be repealed, but the absolute minimum Congress should do is end the pill penalty.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 fixing the IRA’s pill penalty.

Older Americans deserve the assurance that they will always have access to the lifesaving medicines they need. Including the EPIC Act in reconciliation to eliminate the pill penalty is a key first step toward safeguarding innovation and protecting older patients.

Click below to urge your senators and representative to eliminate the Biden pill penalty by including the EPIC Act in reconciliation.