Grassley to hold drug pricing hearing

by Nathaniel Weixel - 01/22/19 9:42 PM ET

The Senate Finance Committee’s first hearing of the year will focus on prescription drug prices, panel chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced Tuesday.

The Jan. 29 hearing “will be the first in a series of hearings scrutinizing prescription drug pricing and considering policy and oversight solutions to lower costs for American patients,” Grassley said in a statement Tuesday.

“We already know what the problem is. It’s time to look at bipartisan solutions and work to turn them into law,” he added.

The Senate hearing will be the same day the Democratic-led House Oversight and Reform Committee holds the first of its own drug pricing hearings.{mosads}

The two hearings on the same day shows the bipartisan nature of the concern over rising drug prices.

Grassley and House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) have made rising drug prices a central concern.

Grassley is largely seen as a dogged investigator who backs free-market principles, and is not seen as an ally of the pharmaceutical industry.

He is also willing to work with Democrats. In September he teamed up with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to legislate that television advertisements for drugs be accompanied by price disclosures. The measure was ultimately blocked by House Republicans.

Earlier this month, Grassley laid out his priorities for drug pricing action, including legislation with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) that would allow patients to import prescription drugs from Canada.

He has also expressed support for much of President Trump’s drug pricing agenda.