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Minnesota House of Representatives

State Representative Joe Atkins

583 State Office BuildingState Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4192

For more information contact: Chris Shields 651-296-8873

Posted: 2007-01-11 00:00:00
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ATKINS PROPOSES CLEARING THE WAY FOR $4 PRESCRIPTION MEDICATIONS

State Representative Joe Atkins proposed changing state law to allow Minnesotans full access to the $4 generic prescription drug programs recently introduced by several large national retailers.

"Prescription drug costs are like a festering wound, just growing and growing," added Atkins, Chair of the House Commerce and Labor Committee. "Hopefully, this proposal will be like penicillin for that wound."

Last month several national retailers expanded their programs to offer a month's supply of certain generic prescription drugs for $4 to Minnesota and other states, but have run up against a 1937 state "sale-below-cost" law. The law prevents businesses from pricing goods below cost in order to drive competitors out of business. In Minnesota and a dozen other states with such laws the retailers have taken approximately 50 of 330 generic drugs in the programs off the $4 list to avoid accusations of selling below cost.

Atkins' bill would create an exception to Minnesota's sale-below-cost law for pharmaceuticals.

"Prescription drugs are not like candy bars or garden hoses – they're vital to our health," added Atkins. "Minnesotans deserve the same access to affordable pharmaceuticals that people in other states are getting under these programs."

Some of the drugs excluded from the $4 list in Minnesota are among the most commonly prescribed in the nation. Certain dosages of Prednisone, for example, are not available under the $4 program in Minnesota as they are in other states. Prednisone was one of the 25 most-prescribed drugs nationwide in 2005 according to rxlist.com, a drug index website, and is prescribed for a large number of conditions, including as an anticancer drug and to prevent rejection after kidney transplants.

"This is not a magic bullet to solve the health care crisis. But for the uninsured or Minnesota seniors caught in the Medicare Part D coverage gap, every dollar they can save on their prescriptions makes a difference."

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