Healthcare Leadership Council Endorses Legislation to Incentivize Research and Development of New Lifesaving Medicines

Bipartisan “Ensuring Pathways to Innovative Cures (EPIC) Act” Will Correct a Major Flaw in the Inflation Reduction Act Drug Pricing Program

WASHINGTON – The Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC), a coalition of chief executives from all disciplines within American healthcare, today endorsed the bipartisan “Ensuring Pathways to Innovative Cures (EPIC) Act, legislation introduced in the U.S. House to fix a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that would discourage innovation in treatments for cancer, neurological diseases and other serious illnesses.

The legislation, introduced by Representatives Greg Murphy (R-NC), Don Davis (D-NC) and Brett Guthrie (R-KY), eliminates the disparity in the IRA’s treatment of small molecule drugs and biologics. Under the IRA’s drug pricing provisions, small molecule drugs – medicines that are generally administered orally and represent over 90 percent of prescriptions — are eligible to be subject to government price controls in nine years while biologics have a 13-year grace period before price controls become a possibility.

“This legislation helps to level the playing field for life-saving drugs, encouraging progress in the quest for treatments and cures for life-threatening illnesses, said HLC President and CEO Maria Ghazal. We thank Representatives Murphy, Davis and Guthrie for their bipartisan leadership.”

For Immediate Release: February 2, 2024
Contact: Kelly Fernandez, (202) 449-3452

The Healthcare Leadership Council is a coalition of chief executives from all disciplines within American healthcare. Follow us on LinkedIn.