Opponents warn a bill headed to the governor’s desk to combat the opioid crisis will drive up prescription drug prices in Minnesota. It would assess annual registration fees on manufacturers and distributors — something Lake Crystal Republican Jeremy Munson says big companies actually want, to box out competition from smaller firms:
“You are driving business to big pharma, to the largest manufacturers, the largest wholesalers, the largest distributors.”
The bill’s backers say it will save lives by providing much-needed resources for the prevention and treatment of opioid addiction.
Munson says along with the largest distributors of medical gas, the bill also taxes the small ones:
“The company who is distributing welding gas, but maybe wants to carry a couple of the tanks for oxygen because there’s a nursing home where they don’t want to drive 40 miles to get oxygen.”
