COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio voters rejected a proposal Tuesday that sought to curb prescription drug prices paid by the state for prisoners, injured workers and poor people.
The pharmaceutical industry spent an estimated $70 million to oppose Issue 2, the Ohio Drug Price Relief Act, saying it would reduce access to medicines and raise prices for veterans and others.
Supporters, led by the California-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, spent close to $17 million in support, saying it would save the state millions of dollars and could force the industry to reduce prices elsewhere.
They called the opposition campaign an “assault on the truth.”
“Make no mistake: Although this particular campaign did not win tonight, it is just the beginning of an awareness in Ohio about what huge drug companies are doing to our people,” the campaign said. “This system we have for drug pricing in America has got to give, and sooner rather than later, one state will successfully stand up to big drug companies and Ohio will wish it could have been the first.”
The measure would have required the state to pay no more for prescription drugs than the Department of Veterans Affairs’ lowest price, which is often deeply discounted.
Curt Steiner, who managed the opposition campaign, said voters “delivered a loud and clear message that Issue 2 was a deceptive and seriously flawed proposal. A large majority of Ohio voters concluded Issue 2 wouldn’t have solved any problems; it would have made things worse.”
Issue 2 crowded the state’s airwaves ahead of Tuesday’s election.
The opponent campaign, Ohioans Against the Deceptive Rx Ballot Issue, was funded by a subsidiary of the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, that was not required to disclose its specific donors.
The campaign of supporters, Ohio Taxpayers for Lower Drug Prices, got nearly all its money from the California-based foundation led by Michael Weinstein. His combative style and history of litigation elsewhere was the subject of relentless TV attack ads that aired around the state.
A similar ballot measure went before California voters last year. Proposition 61 failed after drugmakers spent $109 million to defeat it, with another $20 million spent in support.
South Dakota is among states where proponents are looking to try again next year.
