After some very public cajoling, executives from some of the world’s largest drug makers have now agreed to testify about drug pricing at a Senate hearing later this month.
Of course, they would be foolish not to do so. The Senate Finance Committee leadership is not especially friendly to the pharmaceutical industry, which is already under siege. Showing up is simply smart politics in the face of proposals and legislation that could change the way they do business.
After all, President Trump publicly berated Pfizer last year for taking a big round of price hikes and none of these executives need that kind of aggravation. And momentum is obviously building in Washington to do something about pricing. Now is not the time to appear indifferent or even mildly uncooperative.
About the Author Reprints
Why does Big Pharma price life saving medication like insulin, or medication older Americans take like Restasis so high? My insurance doesn’t cover these drugs needed to live, and I can’t afford them
Excellent questions.
Thank you. Happy to hear more questions.
ed at pharmalot
Ed: All questions will be gold plated as each legislator would have deposited the necessary monies to pacify the question.
How can Gilead rape the US based patient asking $1,000 per day when they ask patient in India about $10 per day?
Remember what happened to Januvia (gliptin) in India. They tried to sell in the largest diabetic population country. Even the filthy rich won’t buy. They were content with Metformin. Merck finally lowered the price to make it affordable even for the rich.
Let me play the sage and predict that this pithy and truthful answer will not be hear, actually 2 of them.
First, “we raise the prices because we can.”
Second, “we set new drug prices high to avoid leaving money on the table – we can’t be expected to do that, can we?”