Back in January 2019, the late House Oversight Committee chair Elijah Cummings kicked off a nearly 3-year-long drug pricing investigation that culminated today in a major new report detailing how prices for vital drugs have risen substantially since their launch, while calling on the Senate to pass a bill that will allow Medicare to negotiate some prices.
The committee’s investigation focused on 12 of the most expensive drugs for Medicare, showing massive price spikes that have accumulated over the years and made some drugs, like insulin, entirely unaffordable for some, to the point where some diabetics have had to ration their life-saving insulin, and some have died.
Documents obtained by the committee show that several of the companies targeted Medicare specifically to boost revenues.
An internal Novo Nordisk slide deck from October 2013 emphasized, ‘Part D is the most profitable market for the Novo Nordisk insulin portfolio,’ and noted that insulin volume for the Part D market was growing three times faster than the commercial market. A 2016 presentation prepared for Novartis by an outside consultant emphasized, ‘Medicare is critical to brand success, CMS spent ~$1 billion on Gleevec in 2014.’
Building off the work of three hearings with pharmaceutical executives from seven companies, as well as other previous reports, this final report includes new findings from an investigation into Pfizer’s marketing of its blockbuster pain drug Lyrica, and a deeper dive into the insulin products from Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi, which collectively control about 90% of the global insulin market.
‘Over the past 20 years, they have repeatedly and dramatically raised the list prices of their rapid-acting and long-acting insulins and reaped billions of dollars in revenues,’ the report notes, adding that Medicare lost out on more than $16 billion in savings because of those increases.
In a press conference on Friday, Mindy Salango, a West Virginia resident who suffers from type 1 diabetes, pleaded with Congress, saying, ‘I’ve met people in a parking lot to provide them with insulin and help them survive. This isn’t health care. This is survival of the richest. The drug companies have stated that they’ve made record profits at the expense of the lives of diabetics.’
The House-passed Build Back Better Act would set a cap — no more than $35 — on what people who are insured pay for their insulin out of pocket, although the uninsured would not be protected by that provision. But Republicans in the Senate are turning to the parliamentarian to see if the private insurance caps would violate budget resolution rules.
‘We are not going to give up on this,’ House Speaker Nancy Pelsoi said at the press conference. ‘We look forward to a vote soon in the Senate, hopefully very soon.’
In addition to calling on the Senate to pass the Medicare negotiations provision, the committee also highlights the need for reforms that address anticompetitive practices, including product hopping and targeting doctors to prescribe branded through dispense-as-written campaigns.
‘Congress should consider reforms to increase transparency around pharmaceutical investment in R&D. Cost transparency would provide valuable data about companies’ investments in innovation and their claims that high costs of R&D justify the skyrocketing prices of their drugs,’ the report adds.
https://endpts.com/oversight-committee-unleashes-scathing-drug-pricing-report-as-senate-preps-to-vote-on-allowing-medicare-negotiations/
