{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hassan.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senators-braun-and-hassan-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-lower-prescription-drug-costs-by-increasing-competition", "Senators Braun and Hassan introduce bipartisan bill to lower prescription drug costs by increasing competition", "2022-09-22", "2022", "2022-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "NH", "Margaret Wood Hassan", "H001076", "www.hassan.senate.gov", "hassan", "https://www.hassan.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senators Mike Braun and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) introduced bipartisan legislation today to lower prescription drug costs by removing barriers that prevent some medications, including generic drugs, from entering the market. Generic medications generally cost less than name-brand drugs, and when generics enter the market, it increases competition and brings down overall prescription drug costs.\n\n\u201cFor far too long, politicians and pharmaceutical companies have sparred over drug pricing, all the while patients and their families bear the costs of expensive inaction and endless bureaucratic red tape. We need to shake up this dysfunctional system, and more generic drug competition in the pharmaceutical industry would give patients the upper hand. This is why I am proud to co-introduce the Increasing Prescription Drug Competition Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation that will open the door for more generic drugs to enter the market, ultimately driving consumer-friendly price competition. This bill will help patients in every state get drugs they need for less,\u201d said Senator Braun.\n\n\u201cGranite Staters and Americans need us to keep working together to stand up to Big Pharma and bring down prescription drug costs,\u201d said Senator Hassan. \u201cOur bipartisan bill would take an important step forward to lower costs at the pharmacy counter by preventing pharmaceutical companies\u2019 efforts to block generic drugs from entering the market. I encourage my colleagues to join us in supporting this commonsense bill.\u201d\n\nDETAILS:\n\nSenator Braun and Hassan\u2019s bipartisan Increasing Prescription Drug Competition Act will help get more generic drugs onto the market.\n\nThe FDA often requires that drug manufacturers have a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program for potentially dangerous medications \u2013 for instance, requiring training for doctors to prescribe the drug.\n\nPharmaceutical companies sometimes patent their REMS program as a way to slow or block generic versions of the medication from entering the market.\n\nSenator Hassan and Braun\u2019s bill enables the FDA to immediately approve generic drugs \u2013 instead of the normal 30-month approval stay \u2013 if the only barrier to approval is a REMS patent.\n\nIn addition, their bill stops pharmaceutical companies from abusing the patent and court system by ensuring that if a drug company sues to stop a generic over a REMS patent, the lawsuit may go on but it cannot stop the sale of the generic drug.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T03:08:33Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hassan.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senators-braun-and-hassan-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-lower-prescription-drug-costs-by-increasing-competition"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5744168777018785, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}