Two election complaints have been filed against Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America for allegedly hiding the names of companies contributing to a campaign against an Ohio ballot measure intended to rein in drug prices in the state, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

Ohioans Against the Deceptive Rx Ballot Issue, a subsidiary of PhRMA, has raised $15.8 million to defeat Issue 2 on the November ballot. The proposed law would require state agencies to pay no more for prescription drugs than the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which is able to negotiate drug prices.

Issue 2 proponents filed a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission on Aug. 10 accusing PhRMA of not publicly disclosing campaign contributions as required by state law, The Columbus Dispatch reported. An earlier complaint against PhRMA questioned the legality of forming a subsidiary to raise funds against the ballot issue.

When contacted by the newspaper, Priscilla VanderVeer, PhRMA's deputy vice president for public affairs, said the association reaches out to members for specific campaigns but declined to identify the donors.

"We did not do it to hide money. It is a way to provide specific money for a specific state campaign," VanderVeer said. "This was a decision to create a campaign to run this in Ohio. We believe we are fully in compliance with Ohio law."

The Ohio ballot measure is modeled after similar proposal that was defeated by California voters in 2016. That effort resulted in one of the most expensive ballot measure campaigns in California history, with a PhRMA campaign committee raising more than $110 million to defeat the measure, according to the website Ballotpedia.org. http://bit.ly/2vxLLcZ

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