RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Without prescription drugs, Charlottesville resident Mara Shapiro and Norfolk resident Jillian Goodwin would be very different people.
“I would be really really sick. I would be losing a lot of weight. I would be struggling to eat. I would be spending a lot of time in the bathroom,” said Shapiro, who has Crohn’s disease.
“I was approaching the point of needing a double lung transplant,” said Goodwin, who has Cystic Fibrosis.
Both Shapiro and Goodwin say prescription drugs have saved their lives, but they come at a cost.
“They are astronomically cost-prohibitive. They are $350,000 a year,” Goodwin said.
That’s why both Goodwin and Shapiro, who have insurance and are enrolled in copay assistance programs to help them cover the cost, are urging Gov. Glenn Youngkin to sign a bill that would create a Prescription Drug Affordability Board in Virginia. The board would have the power to cap the price of prescription medications if it determines companies are charging more than necessary.
“Life-saving medications, they’re amazing, but they kind of become pointless if the people whose lives need saving, can’t get them,” Goodwin said.
However, not everyone is on board.
In a letter, the Virginia Biotechnology Association is urging Youngkin to veto the bill saying price caps could stifle innovation and “make it unfeasible for certain drugs to be sold in Virginia, reducing the availability of critical therapies that Virginians rely on to stay healthy.”
Youngkin has until March 24 to consider the bill.
