Following a report issued Tuesday showing record profits from drug companies, Vermont Senator Peter Welch and Michigan Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, both Democrats, are calling for change.
On Tuesday Protect Our Care, a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates for affordable health care, issued its quarterly Greed Watch report. It found that in the first three months of this year, the 15 largest pharmaceutical companies reported nearly $173 billion in revenue and $29 billion in net profits.
The report only reviews the 10 drugs selected for Medicare negotiations authorized in the Inflation Reduction Act for conditions including heart failure, diabetes, blood cancers and arthritis.
Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach said the companies make billions in profits but fail to make drugs affordable for those who need them.
“Our report clearly shows that the big drug companies started off 2024, just as they have started off every other year, by continuing to put profits over people," Dach said. "Americans spend as much as four times more than anyone else in the world for the same medicine. Big drug companies also increased their lobbying efforts dramatically and most of these companies are in court today trying to argue that the Medicare negotiation provisions in the IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) are illegal and need to be turned back.”
Senator Peter Welch reiterated his stance that drug companies have for too long been able to charge, and are continuing to increase, high prescription prices with no repercussions.
“The reality is, and the pharma people know this, that anybody in a family on a tight budget if they have a loved one who needs a medication that family will do anything and everything to be able to pay for that," asserted Welch. "And that reality should not be exploited and abused by the pricing power that pharma has. And that's why this price negotiation is so important. What's really significant about your report is that even with negotiation beginning for those 10 drugs that were the first to be negotiated, the capacity of pharma to make incredible profits marches on unabated.”
Welch said pharmaceutical companies justify higher prices citing research costs. But the Democrat says taxpayers also pay for research and patent protections.
“Despite all those extraordinary benefits to their companies, their shareholders, they continue to rip us off with exploitive prices," stated Welch. "It’s unconscionable and it's not sustainable because it has ripple effects.”
Congresswoman Dingell said the latest report demonstrates what has long been known: drug companies will do whatever they can to make money at the expense of patients.
“Pharmaceutical companies, I mean, they're trying to do everything they can to repeal reforms," Dingell said. "They’re working to undermine and to circumvent the cost saving measures in an attempt to protect their bottom line.”
Dingell noted that a bill was introduced last summer that remains pending in Congress to further address the high costs of prescription drugs.
“End Price Gouging for Medications Act," noted Dingell. "This bill would require the Secretary of HHS to ensure Americans do not pay more for prescription drugs than the lowest price per drug in 11 other countries that represent nations with similar economies. And we have to keep fighting to find additional solutions to lower prescription drug costs in this country.”
With the election nearing, Welch warned that the issue is on November’s ballot.
“It’s been a political doctrine here, and it is mystifying, by the Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act and to resist to the very last vote any kind of price negotiation or price relief," Welch said. "So it would be foolish to disregard past as prologue for what we could expect in a Trump Administration.”
