Prescription drugs: prohibition on price discount.

Existing law regulates the packaging, labeling, and advertising of drugs and devices. This bill would generally prohibit a person who manufactures a prescription drug from offering in California any discount, repayment, product voucher, or other reduction in an individual's out-of-pocket expenses associated with his or her health insurance, health care service plan, or other health coverage, including, but not limited to, a copayment, coinsurance, or deductible, for any prescription drug if a lower cost generic drug is covered under the individual's health insurance, health care service plan, or other health coverage on a lower cost-sharing tier that is designated as therapeutically equivalent to the prescription drug manufactured by that person or if the active ingredients of the drug are contained in products regulated by the federal Food and Drug Administration, are available without prescription at a lower cost, and are not otherwise contraindicated for the condition for which the prescription drug is approved. The bill would specify exceptions to these prohibitions, including, among other things, if the individual has completed any applicable step therapy or prior authorization for the prescription drug as mandated by the individual's health insurer, health care service plan, or other health coverage, or if a rebate is received by a state agency. The bill would also clarify that it does not prohibit an entity, including a manufacturer of prescription drugs, from offering a pharmaceutical product free of any cost, if the product is free of cost to both the patient and his or her health insurer, health care service plan, or other health coverage, that it does not affect a pharmacist's ability to substitute a prescription drug, and that it does not prohibit or limit assistance to a patient provided by an independent charity patient assistance program, as defined.