Pharmaceutical Price Gouging: The Need For Direct Regulation on the Gray Market

Authors

Nicole Rende

Abstract

(Excerpt)

This Note proposes federal legislation that will ultimately shut down the Pharmaceuticals gray market. The federal government should directly regulate the gray market and the price gouging mechanisms used. Congress should pass the Fair Accountability and Innovative Research Drug Pricing Act of 2016, currently proposed. This Act will increase price transparency and provide a civil penalty for wrong doers. In addition to the passage of this Act, there needs to be a direct attack on the gray market by creating an act that does not allow companies to participate in these distributions and ultimately form monopolies. This act needs to prevent the bulk of the sale distributions of these lifesaving drugs going to specific entities; it could be a continuation of the provisions first drafted in the Gray Market Reform Act introduced in the 112th Congress. The companies that are involved in gray market activity should also be criminally punished for the lives they are affecting. In order for these new regulations to succeed and be enforceable, there should be a separate committee created that specifically addresses all gray market activities. A new committee solely focused on the pharmaceutical gray market will finally give the government a fighting chance to put an end to this social injustice. This committee could be given the power to enforce any new legislative provisions with necessary fines and punishments.

Comments

Winner: 2017 JCRED Best Notes Award