John Rice Carter: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. I rise to speak in support of H.R. 2115, the Public Disclosure of Drug Discounts…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. I rise to speak in support of H.R. 2115, the Public Disclosure of Drug Discounts Act. I am very glad to see this bill, which was part of the METRIC Act Representative Schakowsky and I passed out of Energy and Commerce, being moved through the House floor. This is important legislation that brings desperately needed transparency to our drug supply chain. So much of the debate around how we can lower drug prices in this country has been focused on drug manufacturers. This bill highlights the need for reforms throughout our entire drug supply system. Specifically, this bill shines a spotlight on the middlemen in our drug supply chain: the pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. For context, three PBMs control almost 80 percent of the marketplace, and while originally designed to primarily process claims data, these companies are now some of the largest corporations in the country. For the year 2019, the major PBM companies had a higher projected revenue than Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google combined. Again, for this year, 2019, the major PBM companies had a higher projected revenue than Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google combined. In a time where patients are facing higher and higher drug costs, it is clear that more transparency of these middlemen is desperately needed, at the very least. This bill, H.R.…”