As drug prices keep rising, state lawmakers propose tough new bills to curb them

State governments are increasingly taking steps to rein in drugmakers for unjustified price increases. Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, for example, included a penalty on price hikes for a wider range of drugs as part of his new budget proposal, projecting it would generate $70 million in its first year. Colorado, Florida, and several New England states previously passed laws allowing the importation of drugs from Canada. Those programs are still being developed and would require federal approval. A recent Rand Corp. report estimates that average list prices in the United States for prescription drugs in 2018 were 2.56 times higher than the prices in 32 other developed countries, while brand-name drug prices averaged 3.44 times higher. An Institute for Clinical and Economic Review report found that drugmakers raised the list prices for seven widely used, costly drugs in 2019 despite the lack of evidence of substantial clinical improvements.