Maryland’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board is moving closer to putting price caps on as many as eight drugs in the near future.

The board selected a handful of drugs it thinks fit the criteria of being cost prohibitive to Marylanders who are on state-run health insurance plans.

The drugs include the diabetes and weight loss medication Ozempic, ADHD drug Vyvance and Dupixent, a medication that’s used to treat asthma.

Others selected are Trulicity, Jardiance, Farxiga, Skrizi and Bikarvy.

The selected medications are now going to the stakeholder council to be considered and where the public will have 30 days to comment on the selections.

The drugs were chosen out of hundreds of possible options for their high price and their widespread use.

All of the drugs under consideration meet the board’s definition of being cost prohibitive, meaning they cost more than $30,000 a year or $100 a month for generic versions.

The next step after the selection process is for the board to request information from companies for a cost review to ensure the state’s price capping is warranted for the drugs.

After that, the board may implement the caps.

About 25% of Americans have trouble affording their prescription drugs due to high out-of-pocket costs, according to the KFF.

They spend an average of $1,300 a year on their prescription medications. That’s compared to about $550 for other comparable countries.

The state established the board in 2019.

“The idea behind these boards is for states to think about what a fair price would be that can increase access to these drugs for patients within the state,” said Rachel Sachs a professor of health law at Washington University in St. Louis.

The federal government is currently taking a similar approach on expensive prescription drugs.

Last December, the federal government announced a policy giving it the authority to take over patents for drugs developed with government spending if companies set the price too high.

“If the federal government pays for the research, we got to be more involved in how much you're charging and what Marylanders and Americans pay for these high-cost drugs,” said Vincent DeMarco, affordable drug advocate and president of Maryland Healthcare for All! “March in rights are a really good way to address this and we fully support this.”

The precedent for march in authority stems from a 1980 law that allows the National Institutes of Health to seize the patents of federally funded medicines.