Provides for a Prescription Drug Affordability Board. (8/1/26)

Senate Bill 401 creates the Prescription Drug Affordability Board, a new entity within the Department of Insurance, and enacts new statutory provisions in Louisiana Revised Statutes 22:1870.10 through 1870.18. The legislation establishes a nine-member board composed of the Commissioner of Insurance or designee, the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health or designee, the President of the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy or designee, and six public members appointed by the governor, Senate president, and House speaker, each serving five-year terms. The board must develop a list of critical prescription drugs for which substantial public interest exists in understanding pricing development, considering factors such as cost to public healthcare programs, extent of state use, availability of comparable treatments, and success rates. For drugs on this critical list, manufacturers must report detailed information including total production costs, research and development expenses, marketing and advertising costs allocated by audience type and geographic focus, international pricing by country, and Louisiana purchaser prices including those paid by pharmacy benefit managers net of rebates.

Prescription drug manufacturers and persons engaging in marketing to healthcare providers are directly affected by this legislation. Manufacturers of drugs on the critical list face mandatory reporting obligations to the board, with failure to provide required information constituting a prohibited practice under the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law, R.S. 51:1401 et seq., subject to enforcement by the Attorney General. Anyone marketing prescription drugs directly to healthcare providers must include specific pricing information in educational and marketing materials, including preparation dates, drug names, current and historical average wholesale prices, pricing history since initial United States marketing, and information tailored to each labeled indication and dosage form. Marketing representatives communicating telephonically must provide required pricing forms by mail or electronic transmission within one business day. Violations of the marketing disclosure requirements also constitute prohibited practices under the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law.

This legislation operates within Louisiana's existing consumer protection and insurance regulatory framework. The board must adopt implementing rules pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, R.S. 49:950 et seq., and operates under the authority of the Department of Insurance, consistent with Louisiana's existing health insurance and pharmaceutical regulation structures. The statute creates a public records exception codified in R.S. 44:4.1(B)(11) to protect manufacturers' reported information from disclosure as public records, though the board may publish aggregated data to protect financial and competitive information. The board must submit annual reports to the House and Senate committees on insurance and publish them publicly on the Department of Insurance and Louisiana Department of Health websites, requiring the board to identify drugs with excessively high Louisiana costs compared to other states, countries, and research and development expenses relative to market availability duration.