S. 1753 — End Price Gouging for Medications Act

This section requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish annual reference prices for each prescription drug approved under NDA provisions (21 U.S.C. 355(c) or (j)) or biologics license application provisions (42 U.S.C. 262(a) or (k)). For enrollees in specified federal health programs—including Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, TRICARE, VA health care, FEHBP, and Indian Health Service programs—the retail list price for such a drug may not exceed its reference price; drug manufacturers must also offer the drug at the reference price to all individuals (with insured individuals' total costs not exceeding it). The reference price is the lowest retail list price among 12 specified countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom) if pricing data are available for at least three; otherwise, it reflects the Secretary's determination of the drug's therapeutic value, patient access, R&D costs, and other factors. Noncompliance subjects manufacturers to civil penalties equal to five times the excess revenue received from sales in the affected federal programs, with collected amounts transferred to the National Institutes of Health for drug research and development.