BIG PHARMA, BIG MAD

Democrats Dressed Down Dumbfounded Pharma Executives at Fiery Congressional Hearing on Drug Prices

“Your pharmaceutical company makes these so-called charitable donations so you look like you give a shit about sick people,” Tlaib said.

Several Democratic representatives blasted pharmaceutical executives over the prices of their companies’ drugs during a Wednesday House Oversight Committee hearing that caught the chief of Bristol Myers Squibb subsidiary Celgene and Teva flat-footed. Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) drew a stark connection between bonuses the former Celgene CEO, Mark Alles, had received in recent years and price hikes for the cancer therapeutic Revlimid, which has risen in price from $215 in 2005 to $763 today. When Alles could not succinctly answer whether the drug had improved alongside the price hikes, Porter replied, “To recap here: The drug didn’t get any better, the cancer patients didn’t get any better, you just got better at making money, you just refined your skills at price gouging.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) pointed to internal documents from drugmaker Teva that calculated the return on investment from charitable donations when she said, “Your pharmaceutical company makes these so-called charitable donations so you look like you give a shit about sick people.” Teva’s CEO Kåre Schultz failed so badly to win over lawmakers that one told him he “might as well get off the screen” of the virtual hearing. Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD) told Schultz, “It would have been nice to come, maybe, equipped a little bit better.”