The debate
over high drug prices has been a red hot topic here and inspired a lot of anger and legislative threats, especially in the midst of the 2016 election cycle.
He teamed with hedge fund manager Kyle Bass to challenge the patents of pharmaceutical companies with
high drug prices while shorting their stocks.
Since biosimilars are so new to the U.S. market (there have been just five total approved here since 2015), it's been hard to gauge whether or not they can make a formidable dent
in high drug prices by offering generic alternatives to branded treatments.
But its business model, which has also relied on aggressive price hikes for acquired drugs, has come under growing scrutiny because of political backlash
against high drug prices, dragging Valeant shares down from record highs scaled in August.
For instance, legislators like Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Jeff Merkley of Oregon recently warned that Cures amounts to a big pharma giveaway which will weaken regulatory standards on drugs, provide a mere pittance to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and do nothing to confront the rising tide
of high drug prices.
President Donald Trump sat down with a host of major pharma company CEOs Tuesday morning to address pressing issues
like high drug prices, the future of the FDA, and where treatments are produced.
I think Merck would be trading closer to the S&P 500's valuation if there wasn't much talk from politicians
about high drug prices over the past year and a half.
Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton, who has
made high drug prices a recurring target in her campaign, vowed to prevent price hikes like Mylan's through an «aggressive new set of enforcement tools» last week.
The April 26 memo comes just one day before three of Valeant's top executives are slated to appear before a different U.S. Senate panel that is also
investigating high drug prices.
In a recent interview with The Hill, Ubl said that he understands why Trump is pointing to pharma companies
regarding high drug prices.
Trump has repeatedly criticized biopharma for
outrageously high drug prices, vowing to simplify the drug development process as he also sought to dramatically lower the price of drugs.
What one city did to
fight high drug prices reveals a drug supply chain in which just about every link can benefit when prices go up
The president followed up later in the day, tweeting that Merck «is a leader in higher &
higher drug prices while at the same time taking jobs out of the U.S. Bring jobs back & LOWER PRICES!»
The TPP has been criticized as a transfer of power from democratically elected national governments to multinational corporations that would result
in higher drug prices, a dumbing down of national environmental and health regulations and would give corporations special rights to sue national governments without having to go through the established court system.
Sanders is one of the most outspoken members of the Democratic caucus
against high drug prices and the pharmaceutical industry.
In the State of the Union address earlier this year, he said he intended «to make fixing the injustice
of high drug prices one of our top priorities for the year.
The stock prices of most drug related companies have been suppressed a bit recently as a result of politicians voicing their opinions
about high drug prices.
Facing bipartisan hostility
over high drug prices in an election year, the pharma industry's biggest trade group boosted revenue by nearly a fourth last year and spread the millions collected among hundreds of lobbyists, politicians and patient groups, new filings show.
As the outcry over
high drug prices has intensified in recent years in the U.S., the pharmaceutical industry has blamed the pharmacy benefits managers for not always passing on to patients the rebates they negotiate.
Trump appears to be simultaneously criticizing inversion mergers that shift drug companies» tax domiciles overseas, pharma's tactic of using manufacturing plants in European, Asian, and African countries, and
high drug prices.
And the defiant stance actually may have boosted the drug maker's image at a time when Americans are skeptical about the pharmaceutical industry over
high drug prices.
He jawboned Carrier into keeping jobs in the United States, threatened Boeing for the cost of Air Force One and Lockheed on its F - 35 aircraft, and pharmaceutical companies on
their high drug prices.
One striking aspect of the nomination is Azar's history as a prominent executive in the drug industry — a sector that Trump hasn't been shy about criticizing over
high drug prices and lavish price increases.
Competitive bidding could very well be an effective way of fighting sky -
high drug prices that are taking a toll on patients and their families.
The merger could also fundamentally reshape the business of overseeing drug coverage for insurers, an industry that is dominated by three large players and that has increasingly come under scrutiny over the past year as public anger over
high drug prices has expanded beyond the usual culprits — most notably the pharmaceutical industry — to lesser - known players like pharmacy benefit managers.
Trump lashed out at Frazier on Twitter, criticizing Merck for what he said were
its high drug prices.
Trump lashed out quickly at Frazier on Twitter after the announcement, accusing the drugmaker of being «a leader in higher &
higher drug prices while at the same time taking jobs out of the U.S.»
Shkreli's defiant decision to raise the price of Daraprim, a drug that dates to the 1950s and is the standard treatment for a life - threatening parasitic infection, from $ 13.50 to $ 750 per tablet overnight, helped spark more than a year of public outrage and political fulminating against
high drug prices.
This project to track industry donations to patient advocacy groups — resulting in a database of $ 116 million in payments to 594 groups in a single year — suggests how that massive flow of money is being used to mute objections to
high drug prices.
High drug prices have provoked a backlash of late, with the cost of pills reaching six figures in some cases.
But anger at
high drug prices isn't going away.