I 
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6576 
To require drug manufacturers to disclose the prices of prescription drugs 
in any direct-to-consumer advertising and marketing to practitioners of 
a drug. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 26, 2018 
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To require drug manufacturers to disclose the prices of pre-
scription drugs in any direct-to-consumer advertising and 
marketing to practitioners of a drug. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Drug-Price Trans-
parency in Communications Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds as follows: 
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(1) Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescrip-
tion pharmaceuticals is legal in only 2 developed 
countries, the United States and New Zealand. 
(2) Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescrip-
tion pharmaceuticals is designed to cause patients to 
pressure physicians to prescribe certain medications. 
(3) In 2015, pharmaceutical companies spent 
more than $100,000,000 on advertising with respect 
to each of 16 brand-name drugs, primarily new and 
expensive drugs. 
(4) Prescription rates of medications advertised 
directly to consumers have increased by 34.2 percent 
compared to a 5.1 percent increase in other pharma-
ceuticals. 
(5) Prescription pharmaceuticals cost more in 
the United States than they do in any other country. 
(6) The American Medical Association has 
passed resolutions calling for the ban of direct-to- 
consumer 
advertising 
of 
prescription 
pharma-
ceuticals, and to require price transparency in any 
direct-to-consumer advertising. 
(7) The amount of spending by pharmaceutical 
companies in marketing to health care providers is 
more than 4 times the spending for direct-to-con-
sumer advertising. 
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(8) Health care providers are more likely to 
prescribe a certain drug if they have received pay-
ments or marketing materials from the manufac-
turer of that drug. 
SEC. 3. PRICE DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENT FOR DIRECT- 
TO-CONSUMER DRUG ADVERTISEMENTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 303(g)(1) of the Federal 
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 333(g)(1)) is 
amended— 
(1) by striking ‘‘(A)’’ and inserting ‘‘(i)’’; 
(2) by striking ‘‘(B)’’ and inserting (ii); 
(3) by striking ‘‘(1) With respect’’ and inserting 
‘‘(1)(A) With respect’’; 
(4) by striking ‘‘this paragraph’’ each place it 
appears and inserting ‘‘this subparagraph’’; 
(5) by striking ‘‘No other civil monetary pen-
alties in this Act (including the civil penalty in sec-
tion 303(f)(4))’’ and inserting ‘‘No civil monetary 
penalties (including the civil penalty in section 
303(f)(4)), other than the penalties under this sub-
paragraph and subparagraph (B)’’; and 
(6) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(B) With respect to a person who is a holder of an 
approved application under section 505 for a drug subject 
to section 503(b) or under section 351 of the Public 
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Health Service Act, any such person who disseminates or 
causes another party to disseminate a direct-to-consumer 
advertisement that does not include the wholesale acquisi-
tion cost (as defined in section 1847A(c)(6)(B) of the So-
cial Security Act) for a 30-day supply of the drug shall 
be liable to the United States for a civil penalty in an 
amount not to exceed $1,000,000 for the first such viola-
tion in any 3-year period, and not to exceed $5,000,000 
for each subsequent violation in any 3-year period. For 
purposes of this subparagraph, all violations under this 
paragraph occurring in a single day shall be considered 
one violation. With respect to advertisements that appear 
in magazines or other publications that are published less 
frequently than daily, each issue date (whether weekly or 
monthly) shall be treated as a single day for the purpose 
of calculating the number of violations under this subpara-
graph.’’. 
(b) TRANSFER OF FUNDS.—For each fiscal year, 
there are authorized to be appropriated, and are appro-
priated, out of any funds not otherwise obligated, to the 
Director of the National Institutes of Health for purposes 
of carrying out medical research, an amount equal to the 
amount collected in penalties during the previous fiscal 
year for violations of section 303(g)(1)(B) of the Federal 
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. 
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