Progressives push Trump administration to ensure a future coronavirus vaccine is affordable
WASHINGTON — Progressive Democrats are pushing to constrain how much drug makers can charge for a coronavirus vaccine.
A group of lawmakers held a press conference Thursday to pressure the Trump administration to impose price controls on any coronavirus-related treatment, and to call on their colleagues to reconsider some of the ambitious drug pricing legislation they have put forward this Congress. Their platform goes far beyond the Medicare negotiation legislation from Speaker Nancy Pelosi that passed the House in December; they instead highlighted a bill, among others, that would create an independent committee to set the price for any drug created using federal research.
The press conference came less than 24 hours after congressional appropriators rejected those same lawmakers’ attempt to include from a liberal health care group shows 67% of voters surveyed have serious concerns about the administration’s statement that it cannot control the price of an eventual coronavirus vaccine.
