As part of the Democratic Party's new “Better Deal” economic agenda, lawmakers are going after the high cost of prescription drugs by proposing a new “price gouging enforcer.” The enforcer would be confirmed by the U.S. Senate and direct a new agency designed to stop steep price increases such as the ones affecting anti-allergy medicine EpiPen in recent years.

But attorneys said the idea of a new prescription-drug czar may be a nonstarter. Private practice health care lawyers brought up issues of vagueness, chilling effects on innovation and increased costs, while questioning the effectiveness of the would-be program.

“It's a complete waste of time,” Edward Allera, co-chair of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney's FDA and biotechnology section, said in his blunt assessment of the proposal. “You're going to create another bureaucracy for what? To tell people that drug pricing is too high? It's the worst possible solution. It won't go anywhere.”