(The Center Square) – Colorado Democrats laid out their plan to reduce prescription drug prices Monday.

Sens. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, D-Boulder, and Julie Gonzales, D-Denver, alongside Reps. Yadira Caraveo, D-Thornton, and Chris Kennedy, D-Lakewood, introduced new legislation to create a state prescription drug price advisory board.

Senate Bill 21-175 would make the board responsible for setting price limits on certain drugs, set guardrails against price increases, and recommend future policies to state lawmakers.

Caraveo, a physician by trade, said the bill is necessary to getting prescription drugs to Colorado communities that otherwise wouldn’t have access.

“Coloradans need us to act now. Colorado families are struggling with unfair and unaffordable drug costs. The affordability board will reign in the highest cost drugs and stop the out of control increases that are reaching deeper and deeper into Coloradans pockets and driving up the cost of health care for everyone,” she said.

Gov. Jared Polis also voiced support for the bill. He maintained that the board will be made up of “nonpartisan, unpaid experts who are free from conflicts of interest.”

“Prescription drugs cost too much and Coloradans are sick and tired of being ripped off. This bill is an important step toward our goal of saving people money on health care,” Polis said in a statement.  

On Monday, the Senate Health & Human Services Committee passed Senate Bill 21-123, bipartisan legislation that would authorize Colorado to import prescription drugs from nations other than Canada.

Kim Bimestefer, executive director of the Colorado Department of Healthcare Policy & Financing (CDHPF), testified that the bill would allow Colorado to import “the prices” of drugs rather than just the product.

“One of the most frustrating parts of the U.S. health care policy is the lack of checks on the prices of prescription drugs," she said. "The FDA simply reviews prescription drugs to see if they are safe to take. They don’t compare the prices of drugs that are imported and then sold.”

Polis created the state’s drug importation program in 2019 via Senate Bill 19-005. It requires the approval of the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and must prove that it will contribute to a significant savings for U.S. consumers. 

According to a report by CDHPF from October 2020, importing drugs from neighboring Canada could save Coloradans up to $60 million annually.

A report by the RAND Corporation in January found that prescription drug prices in the U.S. are about 2.5-times higher than in other Western countries. This total was calculated after adjusting the prices down because of the prevalence of generic drugs in the U.S. market, according to the report.