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Drug Price Transparency Expansion Heads To Governor’s Desk

prescription pad and stethescope
Kathea Pinto via Flickr

A bill adding more drugs to Florida’s prescription-medicine price database is heading to Governor Rick Scott’s desk for his signature.

The measure was sponsored by two Jacksonville lawmakers: Rep. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville, and Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach.

MyFloridaRX.com currently lists the 150 most common prescription drugs, their prices and where to find them.

Under the bill sponsored by Yarborough and Bean, that list will double to 300.

Bean told WJCT in March that increasing transparency in the medicinal marketplace could help consumers shop around and eventually bring down prices.

An attempt to give the state bargaining power to negotiate drug prices directly failed this session.

Under the recently passed bill, drug vendors must report drug price changes monthly, and state health regulators must put the new list online immediately after the governor signs it.

Reporter Ryan Benk can be reached at rbenk@wjct.org, 904-358-6319 or on Twitter @RyanMichaelBenk.

Ryan Benk is a former WJCT News reporter who joined the station in 2015 after working as a news researcher and reporter for NPR affiliate WFSU in Tallahassee.