Pharmaceutical price reform is one of the very few equitable growth issues where there are actually Republican legislators willing to talk: CPPC: Senate Finance Committee Grills Drug Executives on Rising Prices, Criticize Them for Terrible Practices: "Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) opened by saying that America has a problem with high prescription drug prices, that a balance can be struck between innovation and affordability, and that the Committee was here to discuss solutions. He and Senator Wyden have launched a bipartisan investigation into the high price of insulin...
...Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) delivered a blistering attack on the assembled CEOs. He bluntly said that drugs did not become outrageously high by accident, and that drug prices are high because that is where pharmaceutical companies and their executives want them. It is outrageous that patients are being forced to ration their medicine or choose between paying for prescription drugs and paying for food and rent. Wyden especially criticized AbbVie for raising the price of its arthritis medication Humira, the top selling drug in the country (which has risen from $19,000 to $38,000 over six years). "Can patients opt for a less expensive alternative?" he demanded. "They can't, because AbbVie protects the exclusivity of Humira like Gollum with his ring!" Humira has used a great many patents on every stage of Humira's development to create a 'patent thicket' that thwarts competition and enables the company to charge whatever it chooses...
#noted
