AHF Blasts New House Committee Report on 340B Drug Discount Program: ‘A Solution in Search of a Problem’

AHF criticizes Congressional leadership for buying into Pharma’s false narrative on the 340B program—a federally-administered drug discount program that costs the government and taxpayers nothing, and works successfully to allow nonprofits and hospitals to provide more care and services to the needy.

Prodded by deep-pocketed Big Pharma as part of its relentless attack on the 340B drug discount program, the House Energy and Commerce Committee today released a new report unfairly criticizing the 340B Drug Pricing Program, which was first established by Congress in 1992.

340B’s goal is to “… stretch scarce Federal resources as far as possible, reaching more eligible patients and providing more comprehensive services” – something it has successfully done since its inception.

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Drug pricing advocates from AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) today blasted Congressional leadership over a new report unfairly criticizing the 340B Drug Pricing Program issued today by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR).

The report was prodded by deep-pocketed Pharma lobbyists as part of Pharma’s relentless attack on the 340B drug discount program.

“This report and related efforts by Congress to revamp the 340B drug pricing program at Big Pharma’s behest is a solution in search of a problem and must be called out,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “AHF is disappointed that Congressional leadership is buying into Pharma’s false narrative on the 340B program—a federally-administered drug discount program that costs the government and taxpayers nothing—and which has worked successfully for over twenty-five years to allow nonprofits and hospitals to provide more care and services to the needy. This report was created to provide a ‘justification’ to fix what isn’t broken. Members of Congress—and their constituents—should know this is a program that works, that works well and needs no overhaul or ‘reform,’ particularly one guided by greedy drug companies and their lobbyists and friends in Congress.”

About the 340B Program

The 340B program was enacted by Congress as part of the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992 to allow designated safety net medical providers, called “covered entities,” to purchase prescription outpatient drugs directly from pharmaceutical manufacturers at discounted prices. As a discount program, 340B costs federal taxpayers and the government nothing. Congress itself expressed that the goal of the program is “to enable [covered entities] to stretch scarce Federal resources as far as possible, reaching more eligible patients and providing more comprehensive services.”¹

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 855,000 individuals in 39 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us @aidshealthcare.

For more information, visit www.let340B.org.

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¹ House Report No. 102–384(II), September 22, 1992, Page 12.