CEO DATELINE - PhRMA challenges Ohio ballot measure calling for drug price controls
CEO DATELINE - PhRMA challenges Ohio ballot measure calling for drug price controls
- March 2, 2016 |
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Walt Williams
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Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America is asking the Ohio Supreme Court to invalidate thousands of signatures on a state ballot initiative that, if enacted, would require state agencies to buy prescription medications at reduced prices.
The Ohio Drug Price Relief Act would prevent Ohio programs from paying more than the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs when purchasing prescription medications. V.A. pricing is generally believed to be 20 to 24 percent lower than for almost any other government program, according to the ballot measure's supporters.
Backers have gathered 116,015 voter signatures in support of putting the measure up for a vote in the November general elections. The Ohio General Assembly now has four months to decide whether to put the measure on the ballot. If lawmakers take no action, then backers must collect at least 91,677 signatures to qualify the initiative for a vote.
In its court filing, PhRMA, along with the Ohio Manufacturers' Association and Ohio Chamber of Commerce, noted that Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted submitted the petition to the General Assembly "with reservations" because of the "unprecedented quantity of suspicious ‘strikethroughs' of signatures on the part-petitions and other factual circumstances suggesting improper, potentially fraudulent circulator attestations."
PhRMA and the other associations allege several violations, including signatories providing false addresses. They want the state supreme court to invalidate the petition.
Initiative supporters accused PhRMA of using legal maneuvering to block a ballot measure it knows it can't win at the ballot box.
"This lawsuit is an act of desperation by Pharma (sic) and its well paid minions and a clear indication that the pharmaceutical industry knows that they simply cannot win their case on drug pricing with the public at the polls in November," said Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the primary financial supporter of the Ohio initiative as well as a similar drug pricing measure in California. http://bit.ly/21zM3uZ
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