Under the watchful eye of Bernie Sanders, pharmaceutical leaders will testify about drug prices
The CEOs of three major pharmaceutical companies are set to appear before the Senate Health Committee on Thursday to defend how much they charge for drugs in the United States, further drawing them into a showdown with lawmakers and the Biden administration over the costs of some of the most commonly used prescription drugs.
The three executives who will testify — Joaquin Duato of Johnson & Johnson, Robert M. Davis of Merck and Christopher Boerner of Bristol Myers Squibb — are expected to clash with the chairman of the health committee, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who has taken the reins. in drug prices, a hallmark of his late career years in Congress.
Mr. Sanders plans to focus the hearing on why drug prices in the United States are higher than in other wealthy countries. His staff has singled out several common medications, including Eliquis, a blood thinner made by Bristol Myers Squibb, and Januvia, a diabetes drug from Merck that can be bought for much less in Canada and Europe than in the United States.
The hearing comes as a new federal program is underway that would authorize Medicare to negotiate the prices of some expensive drugs. Federal health officials last week made their first offers to the makers of the first 10 drugs selected for negotiations, a list that includes Eliquis and Januvia.
Five of the 10 drugs picked for price talks come from the companies whose executives will testify Thursday. Drug manufacturers, including all three companies that will be represented at the hearing, have filed a series of lawsuits arguing that the bargaining program is unconstitutional.
Mr. Sanders has accused pharmaceutical executives of unduly profiting from popular drugs at the expense of Americans struggling to pay for prescriptions. He has suggested that the companies use the drugs to enrich their top executives and shareholders.
Two of the pharmaceutical executives, Mr. Duato of Johnson & Johnson and Mr. Davis of Merck, agreed to testify after being threatened with subpoenas. Mr. Sanders had planned to hold a committee vote last week on whether to issue them, but executives agreed to appear at the hearing before such a vote would take place. The two companies proposed last month that Mr. Sanders wanted revenge for the lawsuits they filed against the Medicare price negotiation program.
Prices for brand-name drugs in the United States in 2022 were at least three times higher than those in 33 other wealthy countries. according to a recent report funded by the Department of Health and Human Serviceseven taking into account discounts that could reduce how much U.S. health plans and employers pay.
Comparing drug prices in the United States with those in other countries can be difficult because the health care systems are so different. In the United States, drug price negotiations are fragmented among tens of thousands of health plans and employers, while European countries rely on a centralized negotiator. And while many prescription drugs can be purchased at European pharmacies for much less, European countries do not necessarily offer their citizens broad insurance coverage for those drugs.
Sarah Ryan, spokeswoman for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, the drug industry's main lobbying group, said in a statement that new drugs are arriving in the United States faster than in any other country. She blamed middlemen known as pharmacy benefits managers for Americans' high out-of-pocket costs.
The three executives scheduled to testify Thursday are the last to appear before Mr. Sanders since he became chairman of the health committee early last year. Moderna became CEO in March testified about the price of his company's Covid-19 vaccineand the CEOs of three major insulin manufacturers – Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi – appeared before the committee during a hearing in May.
Michelle Mello, a health policy expert at Stanford Law School, said lawmakers could use the hearing to build momentum around further legislative action on drug pricing, such as expanding the Medicare price negotiation program to include more medicines.
“We could do so much more with this tool,” she says.