Prop 61 goes down in flames, torch­ing a na­tion­al drug price con­trol mod­el

In the fi­nal hours lead­ing up to the elec­tion in Cal­i­for­nia, back­ers of Propo­si­tion 61 billed it as a na­tion­al mod­el for rein­ing in drug prices. But to­day, the mea­sure and the move­ment are in tat­ters af­ter vot­ers hand­i­ly re­ject­ed the ini­tia­tive.

The state, which vot­ed for Hillary Clin­ton while the much of the rest of the na­tion went for Don­ald Trump, was won over by a last-ditch mar­ket­ing cam­paign that billed Propo­si­tion 61 — which would have capped drug prices at the dis­count rate ne­go­ti­at­ed by the Vet­er­ans Ad­min­is­tra­tion — as a sure-fire way to raise costs for vet­er­ans. Op­po­nents, backed with more than $100 mil­lion from Big Phar­ma to spread the mes­sage, claimed that com­pa­nies would be un­like­ly to of­fer the VA big dis­counts on drugs if it be­came a cost con­trol tool.

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