FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | April 9, 2019
Delaware State Senate Majority Caucus
Contact: Scott Goss (302) 744-4180, or
Dylan McDowell (302) 744-4282
Delaware State Senate Majority Caucus
Contact: Scott Goss (302) 744-4180, or
Dylan McDowell (302) 744-4282
Sen. Stephanie Hansen’s Opioid Impact Fee bill passes the Delaware Senate
DOVER – Delaware on Tuesday moved one step closer to holding pharmaceutical companies accountable for the opioid crisis when the state Senate passed legislation that would require drug makers to pay for additional research and treatment options in the First State.
Senate Bill 34 passed 17-4.
Prime sponsor Sen. Stephanie Hansen, D-Middletown, praised her colleagues for standing up to deep-pocketed drug makers and doing what is right for their constituents.
“Our communities are being torn apart by addiction, from crimes being committed by people looking to feed their habits to the record overdose deaths ravaging families across our state,” she said.
“Today, we in the Senate have made it clear that a reckoning is at hand,” she said. “These multi-million dollar companies that have reaped record profits after flooding our doctor’s offices and getting people in pain hooked on these drugs will no longer be able to avoid responsibility for the pain and suffering caused by their products.”
Co-sponsored by 17 Democrats and three Republicans, Senate Bill 34 would create an opioid impact fee, a small levy assessed on manufacturers based on the strength of the opioids they sell in Delaware.
Every three months, drug makers would be billed one penny for every morphine milligram equivalent (MME) of any brand-name opioid dispensed in the state and one-quarter of a cent for every MME of their generic opioid sold here.
That means manufacturers would face a 4-cent fee for a single 10-milligram pill of the common generic opioid oxycodone and a 15-cent fee for the brand-name equivalent.
Dr. Jeromie Ballreich, director of the master’s in health economics program at Johns Hopkins University, testified the fee would not result in higher copays for patients or discourage retails from selling opioids, as claimed by drug makers.
“In general, copays rarely change, especially for just one drug or type of drug, but drug prices change all the time and often in an upward trajectory,” he said.
State officials estimate that small levy would generate more than $8 million over the next three years, largely because Delaware is currently one of the top 20 states when it comes to opioid prescriptions per capita andthe top state in the nation for high-dose prescriptions.
Delaware also ranks as having the fifth most overdose deaths per capita. Every year since 2009, more Delawareans have been killed from drug overdoses than mother vehicle crashes, including more than 400 in 2018 according to the latest estimates.
Money collected from the fee then would be directed to a special fund created by the bill to help the uninsured and underinsured enroll in treatment programs, expand treatment options statewide and conduct research on effective opioid treatments.
The fund would be administered by the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services with input from the Behavioral Health Consortium, Addiction Action Committee and the Overdose System of Care.
Senate Bill 37 now heads to the House for a final vote.
Senate Bill 34 passed 17-4.
Prime sponsor Sen. Stephanie Hansen, D-Middletown, praised her colleagues for standing up to deep-pocketed drug makers and doing what is right for their constituents.
“Our communities are being torn apart by addiction, from crimes being committed by people looking to feed their habits to the record overdose deaths ravaging families across our state,” she said.
“Today, we in the Senate have made it clear that a reckoning is at hand,” she said. “These multi-million dollar companies that have reaped record profits after flooding our doctor’s offices and getting people in pain hooked on these drugs will no longer be able to avoid responsibility for the pain and suffering caused by their products.”
Co-sponsored by 17 Democrats and three Republicans, Senate Bill 34 would create an opioid impact fee, a small levy assessed on manufacturers based on the strength of the opioids they sell in Delaware.
Every three months, drug makers would be billed one penny for every morphine milligram equivalent (MME) of any brand-name opioid dispensed in the state and one-quarter of a cent for every MME of their generic opioid sold here.
That means manufacturers would face a 4-cent fee for a single 10-milligram pill of the common generic opioid oxycodone and a 15-cent fee for the brand-name equivalent.
Dr. Jeromie Ballreich, director of the master’s in health economics program at Johns Hopkins University, testified the fee would not result in higher copays for patients or discourage retails from selling opioids, as claimed by drug makers.
“In general, copays rarely change, especially for just one drug or type of drug, but drug prices change all the time and often in an upward trajectory,” he said.
State officials estimate that small levy would generate more than $8 million over the next three years, largely because Delaware is currently one of the top 20 states when it comes to opioid prescriptions per capita andthe top state in the nation for high-dose prescriptions.
Delaware also ranks as having the fifth most overdose deaths per capita. Every year since 2009, more Delawareans have been killed from drug overdoses than mother vehicle crashes, including more than 400 in 2018 according to the latest estimates.
Money collected from the fee then would be directed to a special fund created by the bill to help the uninsured and underinsured enroll in treatment programs, expand treatment options statewide and conduct research on effective opioid treatments.
The fund would be administered by the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services with input from the Behavioral Health Consortium, Addiction Action Committee and the Overdose System of Care.
Senate Bill 37 now heads to the House for a final vote.
###
- Press Contacts
Scott Goss
Communications Director
(302) 744-4180
scott.goss@delaware.gov
Dylan McDowell
Communications Assistant
(302) 744-4282
dylan.mcdowell@delaware.gov