WASHINGTON – Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) reintroduced legislation to make public pharmaceutical and device manufacturers’ financial relationships with tax-exempt patient advocacy groups. Both senators sit on the Senate Finance Committee, which Grassley formerly chaired.
The Open Payments Expansion Act builds on Grassley’s 2020 investigative report, which found opioid and medical device manufacturers paid $65 million to tax-exempt entities that drove up sales and downplayed risks of addiction.
“Transparency brings accountability. It’s unacceptable that pharmaceutical donors can manipulate well-meaning groups into Trojan horses for dishonest marketing. Our bipartisan bill requires opioid manufacturers to come clean by disclosing their payments to these nonprofit organizations, said Grassley.
“One of the many ways that Big Pharma fueled the opioid crisis was through secretly funneling money to nonprofit advocacy groups – and then those groups at times promoted the use of opioids, despite the increasingly clear risks of addiction,” said Hassan. “At the very least, the American people deserve to know when Big Pharma tries to wield its influence through others. Passing our bipartisan bill would significantly improve transparency, and I urge our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support it.”
Click HERE to view text of the legislation.
Background:
As then-Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, respectively, Grassley and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) recommended expanding Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Open Payments database after exposing a decades-long trend of massive payments from opioid manufacturers to nonprofit advocacy organizations.
In 2015, Grassley led legislation to require drug and medical device companies to disclose payments to nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other health care professionals. That measure was added in the 2018 SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act.
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