HONOLULU – Two Hawaii lawmakers instrumental in crafting legislation aimed at lowering the cost of prescription drugs are traveling to Maine next week to study developments in Maine’s pioneering prescription drug program, officials said Thursday.

Greg Marchildon, executive director of the seniors advocacy group AARP Hawaii, said Sen. Ron Menor, D-Mililani, and Rep. Roy Takumi, D-Pearl City-Pacific Palisades, will join him on the fact-finding trip.

Meetings with Maine officials, including Gov. John Baldacci and Attorney General G. Steven Rowe, are scheduled Wednesday through Friday.

“We’re really going to benefit from the work that they’ve already put into this law,” Marchildon said.

Menor and Takumi worked on legislation passed in 2002 that would set up a prescription drug program in Hawaii similar to Maine’s, known as Maine Rx.

That program allows the state to use its buying power to force drug companies to offer bulk discounts on prescription drugs for senior citizens, the working poor and others who have trouble paying for their medicine.

The U.S. Supreme Court in May ruled in favor of the Maine Rx program, saying drug makers did not adequately show why the plan should be blocked. Since then, the Maine Legislature has revised the legislation as it works to implement the new program.

The Hawaii program, known as Hawaii Rx, is scheduled to take effect July 1, 2004, though lawmakers plan to amend the measure in the upcoming session, Marchildon said.

Amendments would “address the Supreme Court ruling to make sure that the kind of law we want to implement is going to be bulletproof against multinational, big drug company lawsuits,” he said. “We want to be able to come back from this trip with a clear sense of an amended Hawaii Rx.”

Advocates say the program will help about 228,000 residents who do not have prescription drug coverage.

Gov. Linda Lingle has said she has reservations about the Hawaii Rx program, citing the legal challenges to the Maine law, and has set up a task force to study other ways to bring down the cost of prescription drugs.