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S. 1818: Prescription Drug Price Relief Act of 2025

119th Congress · introduced 2025-05-20 · Health · Latest: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

federal

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Official title

Prescription Drug Price Relief Act of 2025

Plain summary

Prescription Drug Price Relief Act of 2025 This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to review brand-name drugs annually for excessive pricing and, if a drug is found to be priced excessively, to void any exclusivity granted to its sponsor. Specifically, HHS must review all brand-name drug prices at least annually and upon petition. If any such drugs are found to be excessively priced, HHS must (1) void any government-granted exclusivity; (2) issue open, nonexclusive licenses for the drugs; and (3) expedite the review of corresponding applications for generic drugs and biosimilar biological products. HHS must also create a public database with its determinations for each drug. An entity accepting an open, nonexclusive license under these provisions must pay a reasonable royalty to the holder of the relevant patent or approved new drug application, and must price the generic drug or biosimilar below the excessive rate. Under the bill, a price is considered excessive if the domestic average manufacturing price exceeds the median price for the drug in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Japan. If a price does not meet this criteria, or if pricing information is unavailable in at least three of these countries, the price is still considered excessive if it is higher than reasonable in light of specified factors, including development cost, revenue, and the size of the affected patient population. The bill also requires drug manufacturers to report specified financial information for brand-name drugs, including research and advertising expenditures.

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

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What does this mean? (plain words)

Official text

Prescription Drug Price Relief Act of 2025

Source: Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate)

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Officials and money

Sponsor: Sen. Sanders, Bernard [I-VT] · 7 cosponsors

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Words on this page, explained (1)
Bill
A proposed law. It becomes law only if it passes the legislature and is signed by the president or governor (or a veto is overridden).

Plain meanings written from linked sources. All words.

Sources

Record fed-us-cong119-s1818 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong119 · updated 2026-11-03 by psicol fed-bills