Drug pricing advocates affiliated with AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) have announced they collected 378,931 signatures of registered California voters – enough to qualify the California Drug Price Relief Act, a statewide ballot initiative that would revise California law to require state programs to pay no more for prescription medications than the prices negotiated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The California measure is expected to qualify for, and appear on, the 2016 presidential election ballot.

To qualify the California measure, 366,880 valid signatures of registered voters were needed (5 percent of all votes cast for governor in the most recent statewide election).

However, AHF advocates said they will continue to collect signatures up until the October filing deadlines.

“Our California ballot measure, which when passed by voters in November 2016, will compel state officials to obtain V.A. pricing – by far, the lowest pricing available to any government agency – for the purchase of prescription drugs for use in state programs,” said Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “If California … is able to pay the same prices for prescription drugs as the amounts paid by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it would result in significant savings to taxpayers. These ballot initiatives are necessary and appropriate to address public concern about runaway drug pricing.”

Prescription national drug spending increased more than 800 percent between 1990 and 2013, according to a press release from AHF. That makes drug spending one of the fastest-growing segments of health care.

Spending on specialty drugs, such as those used to treat HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, and cancers are rising faster than other types. In 2014, specialty drug spending increased more than 23 percent.