WASHINGTON — It was just a tweet, but it signaled something much bigger.
PhRMA, one of the most powerful industry groups in Washington, had watched for several days as Turing Pharmaceuticals and CEO Martin Shkreli were being savaged on social media and on the campaign trail for dramatically raising the price of an anti-parasitic drug. Then, on Sept. 22, PhRMA tweeted that Turing “does not represent the values of @PhRMA member companies.”
A month later, the group published a blog post in which it charged that Valeant Pharmaceuticals, immersed in a separate controversy, was “more reflective of a hedge fund than an innovative biopharmaceutical company.”
PhARMA has been asking for it for a long time, price controls! Now that they have blatantly proven they cannot and will not control their greed I believe they should be required to submit a written request for a price increase to the FDA or some agency not susceptible to lobbyists.
As a pharmacist over the past 24 to 36 months I have seen numerous products, both brand and generic, increase by hundreds of percent. I have also seen insurance companies refuse to pay for generic medications and require the brand name be used.
From someone in the profession for over 40 years I am embarrassed for what the drug manufacturers and insurance companies have done to the practice of pharmacy.