Biden targets drug makers, urges swift Senate vote on price reform

Sanofi India

06/12/2021 22:08

By Steve Holland
    WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden took aim
on Monday at pharmaceutical companies he said were unjustifiably
raising drug prices and urged Congress to pass his landmark
Build Back Better bill to lower costs for everyday Americans.
    The United States spends more than twice as much per person
on drugs as other wealthy economies. One in four Americans who
take prescription drugs struggles to afford them.
    "These price increase are about companies looking to
maximize profits, and nobody is standing up for the patients,"
Biden said at the White House, after meeting two diabetic
patients who spoke about their struggles to pay for insulin.
"It's enough, enough."
    Biden and his fellow Democrats promised voters sweeping drug
price reform in their signature social spending bill, but agreed
to move ahead with a far less ambitious proposal https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/what-is-new-biden-plan-reduce-us-drug-prices-2021-11-03
 after facing opposition from centrist dissenters in Congress.
    The House of Representative has passed the bill, which has a
drug pricing provision that among other things sets a $35
monthly cap on insulin prices.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2RT5SA
    Biden called on the Senate to follow suit on Monday.
    A bottle of insulin costs less than $10 to make, Biden said,
yet in the U.S. a monthly supply costs about $375 on average and
can go as high as $1,000. Insulin prices have gone up by 15% or
more in some cases over the past decade, he said.
    "Should I buy groceries, or my insulin and other necessary
supplies related to diabetes? I had to make this choice
relentlessly, without relief, every day" explained Iesha Meza,
who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 21, and who spoke
at the White House before Biden. 
    "I was forced to ration my supply of a drug that is as vital
to me as water," she said. "I felt myself growing weaker and
weaker each day." She ended up being rushed to a hospital and
slipping into a life-threatening diabetic coma.
    Biden stressed that drugmakers should make profits and get a
"fair return" on investments. "Right now drug companies have set
the price at whatever the market will bear," he said. 
    Insulin is made largely by three companies: Eli Lilly and Co
 LLY.N , Novo Nordisk A/S  NOVOb.CO  and Sanofi SA  SANO.NS 
    Many of the millions of U.S. diabetics have struggled during
the COVID-19 pandemic to access regular testing and maintenance
to handle the disease, a Reuters investigation found. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-diabetes-covid-specialreport/special-report-how-the-pandemic-laid-bare-americas-diabetes-crisis-idUSKBN2FD13Q
    The $35 cap, which does not apply for those without health
insurance, does not cut insulin prices, instead subsidizing
customers with tax dollars.
    Drugmakers say the proposal would undermine their ability to
develop new medicines, though insulin was discovered a century
ago. A congressional report https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/COR%20Staff%20Report%20-%20Pharmaceutical%20Industry%20Buybacks%20Dividends%20Compared%20to%20Research.pdf
 showed that top drugmakers have spent around $50 billion more
on share buybacks and dividends than research and development
between 2016 and 2020.
    The bill will reduce access to treatment and stifle the
development of new uses and improvements to medicines, PhRMA,
the industry's largest U.S. trade group, said in a statement
shortly following Biden's remarks.

 (Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein;
Editing by Heather Timmons and Aurora Ellis)
 ((ahmed.aboulenein@tr.com; +1 202-519-3051; Reuters Messaging:
ahmed.aboulenein.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))