Liberal healthcare advocates have mounted pressure on the Biden administration to approve the Democrats’ controversial plan allowing the government to negotiate drug prices, a multimillion-dollar effort meant to counterattack the pharmaceutical industry.
Swiss pharma industry fights lower drug prices in the US
The American subsidiaries of Swiss drug giants, Roche and Novartis, have actively participated in the lobbying of US Congress members over the proposal to lower drug prices in the US. Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
A proposed law currently under discussion in the United States Congress aims to lower prescription drug prices. But Big Pharma, including Swiss giants Roche and Novartis, are pulling out all the stops to lobby against the measure.
This content was published on May 24, 2021 - 10:11
May 24, 2021 - 10:11
Alexis Rapin, Montréal
The issue often sparks heated debate across the Atlantic. The cost of prescription drugs in the US is among the highest in the world, with many Americans regularly forced to bleed themselves dry just to pay their pharmaceutical bills. Written in 2019 and dusted off last April, draft legislation to reform the law is currently being discussed by Congress. It’s a m
Everyone agreed: prices are too high and we need innovative treatments for the sick.
The hearing was balanced and cordial in no small part because of the chairwoman, Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-CA, 18th District.
The committee listened as patients told their stories.
Like Hunter Davis, a child who suffered from spinal muscular atrophy, a rare disease with paralyzing symptoms that mimic ALS. Hunter’s life was saved by a novel medication, an “orphan” drug (drugs that have difficulty finding “parents” to finance the research and development R&D that create them.)
Like Charlie, a patient once treated by Rep. John Joyce, R-13, a physician from western Pennsylvania whose district consists of Blair, Huntingdon, Bedford, Fulton, Franklin and Adams counties. When he was 64, Charlie’s melanoma was progressing until he received an “orphan” drug. Charlie is now 74 and disease-free.
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House lawmakers on both sides of the aisle pummeled AbbVie CEO Richard Gonzalez for raising the price of two widely used drugs and for the company s legally questionable tactics to head off competition from biosimilars, despite pulling in healthy profits.
Much of Tuesday s House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing centered around two issues: the risks and benefits of Medicare price negotiation and potential abuse of the patent system.
Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) charged that Gonzalez and other AbbVie executives were actively targeting the U.S. for price increases while lowering prices in other countries.
AbbVie charges $77,000 for a year s supply of adalimumab (Humira), which is 470% more than what it charged when the drug was first launched in 2003. A single syringe of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blocking agent costs over $1,000 more in the U.S. compared to some other countries, including Canada, Japan, Korea, and the U.K.