Price transparency in D2C drug ads the target of reintroduced bill

The news: The Drug-price Transparency for Consumers Act of 2025 was recently reintroduced at the beginning of Congress by Senators Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) and Chuck Grassley (R., Ia.).

Here’s what the Act entails: The legislation requires the inclusion of a drug’s list price or wholesale acquisition cost in all direct-to-consumer (D2C) advertisements. For context, the list price represents the price of a prescription drug set by a manufacturer before any rebates or discounts.

Why it matters: Consumers are facing a torrent of D2C drug ads on a daily basis.

• The pharmaceutical industry spends $6 billion in D2C drug advertising each year, and the average American sees nine D2C ads each day, per a press release from Senator Durbin’s office.
• In fact, prescription drug ads accounted for nearly one-third (30.7%) of commercial time on evening news programs across six major broadcast channels (ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and NBC) last year through Dec. 15, per data from iSpot.tv cited by the Wall Street Journal.

If passed, the Act could empower patients to make more informed decisions about their healthcare. Armed with transparent prices, consumers will likely decide to shop around for the most affordable drug or treatment.

Key stat: The Act’s reintroduction comes at a time when the American public sees price transparency as a major healthcare priority.

• 61% of US adults say boosting price transparency rules to ensure healthcare prices are available to patients should be a top priority for Congress or the Trump administration, per the KFF Health Tracking Poll.

Our take: Consumers should know the price of a product or service before buying it. The reintroduced Act is a small step in the right direction to making this happen.

However, transparent drug prices don’t equate to true price transparency. A medication’s list price and the price a consumer can expect to pay will vary widely depending on their health insurance coverage.

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