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Dear Fellow Vermonter,
Earlier this year, you received a Bernie Buzz discussing the high cost of asthma and COPD inhalers and how Americans pay far more for these products than people in other countries. As a result, dozens of Vermonters wrote back to us expressing their anger and distress at having to pay such high prices.
In January, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee that I chair launched an investigation as to why Americans were paying more than 10 times the price for their inhalers compared to people of other major countries.
As part of this investigation, we sent letters to all four of the major manufacturers of these inhalers – GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Teva – with one simple request: Stop charging Americans with asthma and COPD, by far, the highest prices in the world for inhalers.
Today, I am pleased to announce that – less than three months after we launched our investigation – three of these major corporations have made a commitment to cap the cost of all of their brand name inhalers. Within a short period of time, the vast majority of Americans with asthma and COPD will pay no more than $35 at the pharmacy counter for the inhalers they purchase. This includes the uninsured, the under-insured, and those who have commercial insurance. I repeat: No more than $35 at the pharmacy counter. This does not cover people who are on Medicare and other public programs. The new out-of-pocket caps will go into effect on June 1st for Boehringer Ingelheim and AstraZeneca products, and no later than January 1, 2025 for GlaxoSmithKline products.
Teva, the smallest of the four companies that manufacture inhalers, has not yet made that commitment. We hope they will in the very near future.
A Vermont resident recently told my office that she has to pay $320 per month for Boehringer Ingelheim’s Spiriva HandiHaler. As a result of these decisions, she could save more than $3,000 a year on the inhaler that she needs to breathe. Millions of others will enjoy similar benefits.
During the last few months, I have had the opportunity to talk to the CEOs of Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, and Teva. My impression is that these companies, as well as many others in the pharmaceutical industry, are beginning to catch on to the fact that the American people are sick and tired of paying astronomical prices for the prescription drugs they need to stay alive or ease their suffering. Further, Americans, whether they are Democrats or Republicans, progressives or conservatives, cannot understand, and will not tolerate, why they should be paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.
A major priority of the Senate HELP Committee has been to lower the price of prescription drugs in America.
Working with the Biden Administration, I am proud of the progress we have made.
Last year, the CEO of Moderna committed during a HELP Committee hearing to set up a patient assistance program so that no one in America would have to pay for their vaccine out of pocket.
In a separate HELP Committee hearing last May, the CEO of Eli Lilly committed that his company would not raise prices on existing insulin products after announcing very substantial price cuts for these products.
While the committee’s efforts are beginning to pay off, much more needs to be done.
In his State of the Union address, President Biden discussed, in a very significant way, the need to lower prescription drug prices all across the board. It is not just asthma. It is not just COPD. It is not just diabetes. Today, individuals, hospitals, and insurance companies continue to pay unsustainably high prices for prescription drugs. This is one of the reasons why we spend far, far, more per capita for health care than the people of any other country.
This has got to end. And I look forward to working with the President and Congress to make that happen.
Sincerely,
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