AUGUSTA – The Maine House continued its efforts to curb the rising costs of prescription drugs Tuesday by approving legislation requiring drug manufacturers to reveal how much they spend on marketing. Lawmakers also approved a second bill directing pharmacies to disclose the retail prices of medications.

The votes arrived on the heels of Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing Maine’s Rx prescription drug program to move ahead over the opposition of the pharmaceutical industry.

Approved by a 79-64 vote, LD 254 was advanced by proponents as an attempt to determine how drug advertising campaigns influence the actual consumer cost of many prescription medicines. The amended bill requires drug companies to file annual reports with the Department of Human Services regarding marketing expenses. The bill requires the department to file an annual report with the Legislature and the Attorney General regarding the information filed and a biennial report that contains analysis of information and recommendations.

The legislation preserves the confidentiality of trade information that is protected under state and federal law, but would provide some information to the public in aggregate form. Drug companies would have to pay a $1,000 fine if they failed to file a report with the state, a policy which would become effective July 1, 2004.

The largely party-line vote was opposed by many GOP lawmakers including Rep. Joe Bruno of Raymond, the House Republican leader and a pharmacist by trade. Bruno said the bill “vilified an industry” that had done no wrong and that little would be achieved by requiring the companies to reveal their advertising costs.

“It’s not going to lower the cost of prescription drugs,” he said. “Only one other state has passed this legislation. They have no data that does anything, so why single out this industry. Pharmaceutical manufacturers may not be angels, but how much do we have to beat on them?”

Rep. Deborah McNeil of Rockland, one of just a handful of Republicans who supported the measure, said she was swayed after learning about the price discrepancy between the United States and Canada for her brother’s epilepsy medications.

“His medications at the pharmacy which are paid by his insurance come to almost $1,200 a month for two medications. When I called Canada, those same medications were $360. … This bill isn’t a cure-all, but it’s a step in the right direction.”

As a resident of the St. John Valley in northern Aroostook County, Rep. Ross Paradis said he was well aware of the Canadian policies that help keep prescription drug prices down. The Frenchville Democrat emphasized that Canadian laws prohibit drug advertising and that a three-member board in Ottawa sets the prices for the entire country.

“These are very simple measures and they work,” he said. “Buses go every year across the border [into Canada] to get cheaper drugs, so it’s high time we did something about these [drug company profits] that are not only unfair, they are highly obscene.”

A second bill, LD 102, received preliminary House approval without debate and requires pharmacists to provide the “usual and customary price” of prescription drugs purchased by Maine consumers.

Both measures face additional votes in the House and Senate.