H.R. 10094: Affordable Pricing for Taxpayer-Funded Prescription Drugs Act of 2026

This bill would require federal agencies that fund biomedical research and development to include reasonable pricing rules in those funding agreements, licenses, and related patent or regulatory data deals.

What products are covered

The bill applies to biomedical products or services, which it defines broadly to include:

• drugs
• vaccines
• medical devices
• diagnostic tests
• assistive technologies
• cell- or gene-based therapies
• other health care technologies

Pricing rule

For products or services developed with the help of federal research funding, the bill says the price must be considered “reasonable” by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, unless the Secretary grants a waiver.

It also says Americans should not be charged more than the price used in a group of comparable high-income countries. The reference price would generally be based on the median price in Canada plus six other large, high-income countries, with the possibility of a regulatory adjustment if the Secretary decides it is appropriate.

Additional pricing controls

The Secretary could create further rules to make prices reasonable. The bill says those rules may address:

• lowering prices or shortening exclusivity if revenues exceed certain targets
• lowering prices when the price is high relative to the health benefit the product provides
• lowering prices when the product creates major access barriers or financial burdens for patients
• other similar mechanisms, alone or in combination

In doing so, the Secretary would have to consider both the need for reasonable prices and the need to preserve incentives for biomedical research and development.

Waivers

The Secretary could waive part or all of the pricing requirement if doing so is in the public interest. Before a waiver takes effect, the public would have to be given notice and a chance to comment, including at a public hearing, and the Secretary would have to publish an economic analysis supporting the waiver.

Transparency and reporting

Companies commercializing covered products would have to report information to the Secretary, including:

• the costs of clinical trials used for federal regulatory approval
• any federal subsidies that helped pay those costs
• annual revenue from the product, broken down by county of sale

The Secretary would have to make those reports public.

Effect on other laws and agreements

The bill says these new pricing rules would be added on top of any other pricing limits or public-interest requirements already in contracts or under federal patent law.

Relevant Companies

• PFE - Pfizer could be affected if products developed with federal funding face new pricing limits or reporting requirements.
• MRK - Merck could be affected by lower allowable prices on federally supported drugs or vaccines.
• BMY - Bristol Myers Squibb could be affected if federal funding is tied to pricing constraints on commercialized biomedical products.
• LLY - Eli Lilly could be affected if products developed with taxpayer-supported research are subject to international reference pricing.
• JNJ - Johnson & Johnson could be affected for both pharmaceuticals and medical devices if covered products rely on federal research support.
• ABT - Abbott could be affected through the medical device and diagnostics parts of the bill.
• ISRG - Intuitive Surgical could be affected if federally supported medical technology falls under the bill’s pricing rules.
• TMO - Thermo Fisher Scientific could be affected through diagnostics or other biomedical products and services.
• DHR - Danaher could be affected through diagnostics and life sciences businesses tied to federally funded innovations.