In a fiery speech before the National Academy of Medicine’s annual forum, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar announced impending “historic action” that federal policymakers will take against abusive pricing in the pharmaceuticals industry.

Under Azar’s new proposal, the government would require drug manufacturers to disclose list prices in their advertisements for medications covered by Medicare or Medicaid.

“For too long, drug pricing has been like no other market,” Azar said. “Prices are completely opaque, and the industry actually makes a point of claiming that their list prices are often meaningless.”

“Patients deserve to know what a given drug could cost when they’re being told about the benefits and risks it may have. They deserve to know if the drug company has pushed their prices to abusive levels. And they deserve to know this every time they see a drug advertised to them on TV,” he added.

His remarks were met with a standing ovation from forum attendees, reported CNN’s Wayne Drash.

Pharmaceutical companies are already lobbying against the proposal, citing their own voluntary effort to direct ad viewers to webpages that contain list pricing.

Get the full story here, from CNN.