House Bill No. by Representative Galle aims to address pharmaceutical costs in Louisiana by establishing a framework for the development and maintenance of a critical prescription drug list by the Louisiana Department of Health. The bill mandates that the department consider various factors, such as the cost to public healthcare programs, current pricing, usage rates, and the availability of alternatives when creating this list. Additionally, the department is required to review and update the list at least every three years and may accept recommendations from various stakeholders, including government agencies and healthcare professionals.

The bill also imposes reporting requirements on manufacturers of drugs included in the critical prescription drug list, necessitating detailed disclosures about production costs, research and development expenses, marketing costs, and pricing for Louisiana purchasers. This information is to be kept confidential and exempt from public records disclosure, with any public reporting being aggregated to protect proprietary information. Furthermore, the bill requires that any marketing materials directed at healthcare providers include specific price information, and violations of these requirements are classified as prohibited practices under the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law. The bill also adds a confidentiality provision for reported drug pricing information to the list of exceptions under public records law.

Statutes affected:
HB918 Original: 44:1(B)(27)