States Sharpen Their Focus on Prescription Drug Costs and Industry Relationships with Health Care Providers -

In the past year, we have seen a nearly unprecedented focus by state legislatures on prescription drug manufacturers. The ongoing scrutiny of prescription drug prices and the public health crisis surrounding the opioid epidemic have served as a catalyst for legislative action intended to address those issues. The result is a growing patchwork of new state laws focused on prescription drug pricing decisions and pricing transparency, sales representative registration and licensing, and new laws and regulations that pile on to the myriad existing state restrictions and related requirements that govern industry interactions with health care providers. We provide below a brief overview of key state and local laws and regulations passed or promulgated in 2017 and early 2018.

Early indications from 2018 show no signs that the trend is waning. Prescription drug manufacturers should closely monitor the rapidly evolving landscape, and be ready to take steps to comply with the growing number of state and local regulatory requirements.