Hillary Clinton Proposes Crackdown on 'Unjustified' Drug Price Hikes

— -- In response to concern over drug price hikes, sparked most recently by increased costs for the widely used EpiPen emergency treatment for severe allergic reactions, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton says she would form a consumer response team to guard against undue sticker-price increases to patients by the pharmaceuticals industry.

A release from Clinton's campaign Friday outlined her "plan to protect Americans from unjustified price hikes of long-available prescription drugs."

The team of "federal public health and fair competition officials, advised by patient advocates and independent experts" would monitor drug pricing and analyze whether increases are excessive based on economic factors.

The team's strategies for holding down cost increases to patients would include boosting competition in the pharmaceutical sector, providing assistance in the formulation of alternative drugs, instituting penalties for unwarranted price increases and facilitating the importation of foreign medications when prudent, according to the Clinton campaign.

The issue of drug price hikes came to the fore again recently when news surfaced that the price of Mylan Pharmaceuticals' two-pack of EpiPens has soared, rising from approximately $100 in 2009 to around $600 and more today, according to medical literature and various pharmacies nationwide. Mylan this week announced it was creating a generic version of the epinephrine auto-injector that is used to help counteract life-threatening allergic reactions. A two-pack of the generic version will cost about $300.

In calling for a government response to drug price increases, the Clinton campaign's release also cites the actions of Turing Pharmaceuticals, which increased the price of a drug for AIDS patients by 5,000 percent in 2015.