The state board created to cut what Texas pays for prescription drugs meets Sept. 16 with roughly $119 million of its $150 million carrying no planned use and the law that created it set to expire next September. Registration to speak, and the deadline for written comment, closed at 5 p.m. Sept. 14.
Lawmakers set the Texas Pharmaceutical Initiative up in 2023 to buy medicines more cheaply for the people the state already covers: teachers, state employees, university staff and retirees, prison inmates and Medicaid patients. Its governing statute expires Sept. 1, 2027. The House voted last year to push that to 2031; the Senate cut it back to 2027, so the 2027 Legislature decides whether the effort lives.
In June the board threw out the plan it started with. The original, written by McKinsey & Co. in 2024, ran six years and projected $320 million to $400 million a year in savings. The replacement, written by the board’s own staff, runs two years and projects $40 million to $50 million, limited to the commercial health plans. Manufacturing generic drugs, once a later-phase goal, is now described as something the private market is already positioned to do, with the state at most joining a pilot on shortages. The board narrowed its practical focus to about 1.5 million people in four self-insured plans, where it found administrative fees rose 26 percent in two years.
Money is the other thread. The budget sheet posted for this meeting puts fiscal 2027 spending authority at $141.5 million, of which $118.7 million is marked unallocated. Eight of 25.6 authorized positions are filled, unchanged for two quarters. The largest contract, $22.9 million with the University of Texas System through August 2027, is mostly staffing; a $200,000 contract with the Texas A&M Health Science Center buys drug recall data and claims analysis. The initiative spent $2.4 million through May.
Board members will approve a quarterly report the budget requires and discuss work due to them in December, which is meant to become the recommendations they carry into the session opening in January 2027. Among the asks the June plan flagged: making vendors that contract with state agencies disclose their margins and business affiliations.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 10 a.m. CT Wednesday, September 16, 2026. The notice, TRD 2026005297, was filed September 3 at 9:58 a.m. The last meeting was June 17.
- Where
- John H. Winters Building, Public Hearing Room 125, 701 W. 51st St., Austin. Also by video conference.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas Pharmaceutical Initiative Board — five members appointed by the governor to six-year terms, attached to the Health and Human Services Commission. Mike McKinney chairs. No seat is vacant.
- Format
- Quarterly meeting, ten items. Closed session possible on legal advice and personnel. In-person comment is still available by signing in at the door. The agency bars artificial-intelligence notetakers.
- Live video
- Health and Human Services live and archived meetings, “Winters Live” tab.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · agency agenda page
Board members
- Mike McKinney — chairman; Bryan; physician; former Texas A&M System chancellor and health commissioner.
- Jason LaFond — vice chairman; Austin; appellate lawyer; former assistant solicitor general.
- Jay Bueche — New Braunfels; pharmacist; managing director of pharmacy at H-E-B.
- Tony Schell — Austin; general partner, Escalate Capital Partners.
- Randall Wright — Houston; retired hospital executive, Texas Children’s and Houston Methodist.
Roster from the agency’s board page, cross-checked against the governor’s appointment releases and the board’s June 2026 business plan. Bueche was appointed in May 2026 to the seat Goldina Erowele left in April. An advisory council of agency and university system executives sits with the board but does not vote. Contact: TxPharmaInitiative@hhs.texas.gov.