Indiana Senator Bernie Sanders on Sunday promised to cut prescription drug prices in half if elected president in 2020.
“It is absurd that Americans are forced to pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs while the top 5 drug companies made over $50 billion in profits last year,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“We have a national health emergency when one out of five Americans cannot afford to purchase the medicine their doctors prescribe. Whether the drug companies like it or not, that is a situation which must end, and end soon.”
Sanders in January introduced several bills meant to lower prices.
According to The Hill, the bills would allow importation of cheaper drugs from Canada, allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices and strip monopolies from drug companies if their prices were above the average price in other wealthy countries.
However, it is unlikely that the Republican-controlled Senate will approve the bill.
Meanwhile, other 2020 Democratic nominees have also said that they plan to lower prescription costs.
Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced a bill late last year that was meant to allow the government to manufacture certain drugs and sell them at lower prices if there is not enough competition.
Senator Cory Booker introduced a bill to increase transparency requirements around drug company payments to people with influence over deciding which drugs Medicaid covers, The Hill writes.
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