S. 2554: Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act

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S. 2554: Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act

115th Congress · introduced 2018-03-14 · Health · Latest: Became Public Law No: 115-263.

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Official title

Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act

Plain summary

Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act (Sec. 2) This bill amends the Public Health Service Act to prohibit a health insurance plan or pharmacy benefits manager from restricting a pharmacy from informing an enrollee of any difference between the out-of-pocket cost of a drug under the plan and the cost of the drug without health insurance coverage. (Such restrictions are commonly referred to as gag clauses.) (Sec. 3) The bill also amends the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 to apply certain antitrust filing requirements for generic drug applicants to biosimilar biological product applicants. (Biosimilar biological products, commonly referred to as biosimilars, are biological products approved by the Food and Drug Administration based on their similarity to an already-approved biological product.) Under current law, generic drug applicants that make agreements with brand name drug companies or other generic drug applicants regarding the manufacture, marketing, or sale of their drugs must file such agreements with the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice. The bill subjects biosimilar biological product applicants to the same filing requirements.

Congressional Research Service summary (Public Law), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

What a vote does

PSI Sci description of the legislative step (not an opinion).

The strongest published arguments

Alternatives

Needs sources: no published alternatives yet (for example a different bill, a law instead of an amendment, or keeping current law). We only show items backed by a published source. Suggest one.

How did my representative vote? · This bill's floor votes

Officials and money

Sponsor: Sen. Collins, Susan M. [R-ME] · 25 cosponsors

Cost estimate: CBO cost estimate: S. 2554, Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act (2018-09-12)

Cosponsors on this site

John Barrasso (R-WY), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), John Kennedy (R-LA), Margaret Wood Hassan (D-NH), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Roger F. Wicker (R-MS), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Deb Fischer (R-NE), John Boozman (R-AR), Angus S. King, Jr. (I-ME), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)

Sponsor's campaign money: Sen. Collins, Susan M. [R-ME] reported raising $22.5 million (2025–2026). Details. Shown for context only; it does not mean any donor supported this bill.

Recorded votes

• Senate vote 208 (2018): On the Amendment, S2554 (2018-09-17): Amendment Rejected
• Senate vote 209 (2018): On Passage of the Bill, S2554 (2018-09-17): Bill Passed

Sources

• Congressional Research Service summary (Public Law)
• Congress.gov
• Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-115s2554.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/115/s>

Record fed-us-cong115-s2554 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong115 · updated 2026-11-15 by psicol fed-bills-cong115