NIAGARA FALLS — U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand recently visited the John Duke Senior Center in Niagara Falls to announce the Stop Price Gouging Act, which Gillibrand said would drive down prescription drug prices, ensure access to affordable medications for New York seniors and penalize drug companies that raise prices of medication without justification.

Under current law, pharmaceutical companies can raise the price of their medication at any time with no justification. In January 2017, median prices for prescription medications increased by an average of nearly nine percent, about four times higher than the overall inflation rate, forcing many seniors living on a fixed income to consider going without their medication.

“No matter where I am in our state, one thing I keep hearing over and over again is that New York’s seniors are extremely worried about the high cost of prescription drugs,” Gillibrand said. “We must solve this crisis, and one of the most effective ways we can do that is by finally holding drug companies accountable with tough penalties when they spike the price of prescription drugs that New Yorkers need to treat their illnesses. I am proud to be the author of the Stop Price Gouging Act, and I will fight as hard as I can in the Senate to pass this important bill.”

The legislation would do the following:

¯ Require pharmaceutical corporations to report any increases in the price of their products, as well as justification for any increases that exceed medical inflation, to the Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General, as well as to the public;

¯ Impose a tax penalty on corporations that engage in excessive, unjustified price increases that are proportional to the size of the price spike;

¯ Instruct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a study examining how drug manufacturers establish initial launch prices and suggest best practices for monitoring new drug pricing; and

¯ Reinvest penalties collected from companies in future drug research and development at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).