|
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The pharmaceutical industry scored a huge victory this week in beating back a consumer-sponsored initiative that would have penalized drug companies unless they provided low-cost prescriptions to uninsured Californians.
Still, the ballot fight — the most expensive initiative campaign in state history — failed to quell growing public anxiety over rising drug costs. Consumer and labor groups vowed to shift their fight for affordable medicine to Sacramento.
"The pharmaceutical industry may have succeeded in blocking prescription drug reform at the ballot, but we'll be back next year to push even harder in the state Legislature," said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, the Oakland nonprofit that led the failed campaign behind Proposition 79.
|