Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-VT) chairs a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging to discuss the cost of HIV/AIDS drugs and the Prize Fund alternative.
Chairman Sanders has introduced a bill that would offer an annual $3 billion prize for HIV/AIDS drug research and allow drug companies to make generic versions of AIDS/HIV drugs earlier.
Sanders' legislation, S. 1138, proposes rewarding those who develop the drugs directly through a Donor Innovation Prize Fund, rather than through exclusive rights to sell the new drugs they develop.
In addition, at least 5 percent of the prize money would go to any individual, business or organization that openly shared information and contributed to the development of new drugs.
Nobel-laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig and other scholars and public health officials testified.