Members of the Virginia General Assembly are considering legislation that could bring down the cost of some prescription drugs.
So much for the Prescription Drug Affordability Board... That was supposed to be a newly created group that could’ve set upper payment limits. The new approach is known as the Affordable Medicine Act, giving all Virginians the same discounts on drug prices now available to people on Medicare.
"If there's further recommendations in the future for other medications that we're seeing price hikes that can't be explained, that board will exist to really give the legislature some direction if we do need to at any point intervene on behalf of Virginians," says Karrie Delaney, a Democrat from Fairfax County.
"But that board will be advisory," asks reporter Michael Pope.
At this point, the board is functioning in more of an advisory role," Delaney responds. "Which I think is really important to focus on the transparency."
Senator Creigh Deeds is a Democrat from Charlottesville who helped broker the compromise.
"There are people that are not going to be happy with it. A lot of people in the pharmaceutical world are still not happy with this even though it's not the bill that we had before," Deeds says. "Some people in the administration have questions about it. I understand that. You're never going to meet 100% of everybody's concerns with respect to every issue. But we've gone as far as we could."
"Are you expecting the governor to make any changes," Pope asks.
To which Deeds responds, "I can't speculate about that."
Governor Abigail Spanberger has the ability to make amendments to the legislation that would then be considered by members of the General Assembly when they reconvene in April.
