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<BillSummaries>
<item congress="114" measure-type="s" measure-number="2023" measure-id="id114s2023" originChamber="SENATE" orig-publish-date="2015-09-10" update-date="2015-12-04">
<title>Prescription Drug Affordability Act of 2015</title>
<summary summary-id="id114s2023v00" currentChamber="SENATE" update-date="2015-12-04">
<action-date>2015-09-10</action-date>
<action-desc>Introduced in Senate</action-desc>
<summary-text><![CDATA[<p><b>Prescription Drug Affordability Act of 2015</b></p> <p>This bill amends titles XVIII (Medicare) and XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act to modify provisions related to the affordability of prescription drugs under the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Specifically, the bill: </p> <ul> <li>requires the Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid to negotiate lower prices on behalf of beneficiaries for drugs covered under Medicare Part D; </li> <li>accelerates closure of the Medicare Part D coverage gap known as the &quot;donut hole,&quot; under which beneficiaries who have reached a certain level of yearly&nbsp;drug costs&nbsp;become&nbsp;fully responsible&nbsp;for any additional drug&nbsp;costs&nbsp;up to a certain limit; </li> <li>requires drug manufacturers to issue rebates for prescription drugs dispensed to eligible low-income individuals under Medicare or Medicaid; and </li> <li>expands the application of certain prescription drug rebate requirements under Medicaid to include rebates for generic drugs. </li></ul> <p>The bill also amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to: (1)&nbsp;allow the importation by individuals of prescription drugs from Canada and, potentially,&nbsp;other countries; and (2) establish certain conditions on the award of market exclusivity with respect to drugs.&nbsp;Specifically, a&nbsp;drug manufacturer's market exclusivity shall be terminated if the manufacturer commits, or fails to report, a drug-related violation such as misbranding, illegal marketing, or fraud.</p> <p>In addition, the bill amends the Federal Trade Commission Act to: (1) establish restrictions on certain anticompetitive patent settlements known as &quot;pay-for-delay&quot; agreements, which effectively block generic drug competition; and (2) allow the Federal Trade Commission to initiate proceedings to enforce these restrictions against any parties to such a settlement.<br /><br />The bill also requires drug manufacturers to produce and share annual reports containing specified information related to domestic and foreign sales.</p>]]></summary-text>
</summary>
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<dc:language>EN</dc:language>
<dc:rights>Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.</dc:rights>
<dc:contributor>Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress</dc:contributor>
<dc:description>This file contains bill summaries for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.</dc:description>
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