WATCH: Push continues at Illinois Statehouse to reduce prescription costs | Illinois

(The Center Square) – Calls continue to reduce the price of prescription drugs in Illinois.

Hundreds of Illinoisans descended on the Illinois State House Tuesday calling for legislation to control the rising costs of prescription medications. 

State Rep. Nabeela Syed, D-Palatine, is sponsoring House Bill 1443 that would create the Health Care Availability and Access Board. The proposed board would be an independent body that would review and set upper payment limits in each step of the supply chain. The board would decide which prescriptions would be subject to price caps. 

“We really don’t have time to waste,” said Syed. “There are people that are genuinely struggling, these are our neighbors, these are people we love, and we can’t afford to delay the progress on this so Big Pharma can continue to pad profits. It’s critical that we pass this bill this session.”

Anusha Thotakura, executive director of the public interest group Citizen Action Illinois, said no one should go without life saving medication because they can’t afford it. 

“Over one in three Illinoisans are either skipping pills, cutting pills in half, or skipping refilling their prescriptions all together due to costs, and we don’t believe that it is right,” said Thotakura.  

Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently held a roundtable discussion dealing with the price of prescription drugs, specifically Prescription Benefit Managers, or PBMs, and legislation that would create an independent Prescription Drug Affordability Board.

“It is going to take aim at the common ways that PBMs game the system to profit at the expense of Illinois families and employers,” said Pritzker. 

The group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) said half of every dollar spent on brand medicines goes to entities that play no role in the research, development or manufacturing of those medicines. 

“We agree with Governor Pritzker, the cost of health care must be addressed and with his focus on pharmacy benefit managers whose role as middlemen is driving up the cost of prescription medicines,” said spokesperson Stami Turk in a statement to The Center Square. “Health insurance companies and their PBMs control what patients pay out-of-pocket and are not currently required to share the discounts and rebates provided directly with patients.”