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Let me begin by telling you what you and the American people know, and that is our nation is politically divided. Nobody doubts that.
But there is one issue that the American people – whether they are Republicans, Democrats, or Independents, whether they are conservative or progressive – are united on. And that is: We are sick and tired of paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.
On average, we pay over 3 times as much as the people of other major countries for brand name prescription drugs. And, in some cases, we are paying 10 or 20 times more than people around the world for the exact same product. Meanwhile, while we are getting ripped off, ten top drug companies made over $110 billion in profits last year, and their CEOs make tens of millions of dollars in compensation.
The result of the high cost of prescription drug costs is obvious. One out of four Americans cannot afford to purchase the prescriptions that their doctors write and some of them will die as a result. Others get much sicker than they should, and they end up in emergency rooms or they end up in hospitals at great cost to our already bloated health care system.
Further, the very high cost of prescription drugs is not just an individual issue. It is a taxpayer issue. It impacts all of us. It drives up the cost of Medicaid, Medicare, and other public health programs as well as private insurance.
The truth is that politicians have been talking about the high cost of prescription drugs for years – including me. I've been on this issue for probably 20 years, maybe more. But the other truth is during that time not much has happened. A lot of talk. YUP, A LOT of talk. But no real progress. The drug companies continued to go along their merry way and raise prices anytime they wanted, to any level that they wanted, for any reason that they wanted, they just do whatever they wanted.
Well, here is some good news. Despite all of the incredible wealth and political power of the pharmaceutical industry – believe it or not they have over 1,800 well-paid lobbyists right here in D.C. Despite all of that, the Biden Administration and Democrats in Congress are beginning to make some progress. What have we accomplished over the last several years?
As a result of the Inflation Reduction Act that not one single Republican voted for:
- Seniors with diabetes are paying no more than $35 a month for the insulin that they need.
- Beginning next year, that’s right, and God knows how many more lives that alone will save. Beginning next year, and this is a very big deal, seniors will be paying no more than $2,000 a year out of pocket for prescription drugs. And we all know, we all know seniors who have chronic illnesses, more than one, that are running up huge prescription costs that they can’t afford, well the cap next year will be $2000.
- Furthermore, pharmaceutical companies can no longer increase the price of prescription drugs above inflation for seniors without paying a substantial penalty.
- And, and maybe most importantly, for the first time in American history, Medicare is negotiating with the pharmaceutical industry to lower some of the most expensive prescription drugs in America.
Now we must confess this is not a novel idea, in fact it’s done in every other major country on earth, but finally we’re catching up. The Biden Administration has also taken executive action to make sure that when American taxpayer dollars help fund the development of certain tests, treatments, and vaccines to deal with public health emergencies pharmaceutical companies must charge reasonable prices for those products.
And that's not all.
In December, the Biden Administration proposed that if a drug, made using taxpayer funds, is not reasonably available to Americans because of its exorbitant prices, the government reserves the right to allow a low-cost manufacturer to sell the product for a fraction of the price.
The President called this “an important step toward ending Big Pharma price gouging.” And he is exactly right.
I look forward to the Biden Administration implementing this provision to substantially reduce prescription drug prices.
I am also proud of the accomplishments the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), which I happen to chair, has made to bring down the cost of prescription drugs.
Less than 3 months ago, the HELP Committee launched an investigation into the outrageously high cost of inhalers that 25 million Americans with asthma and 16 million Americans with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) need in order to breathe.
And what we learned from that investigation is that the American people were paying, in many cases, not 10 times more than the people of other countries, not 50 times more, but in some cases 70 times more for inhalers than people are paying in Canada and Europe.
After talking to the CEOs of the 4 major inhaler manufacturers, three of them have made a commitment to cap the cost of all of their brand name inhalers – Boehringer Ingelheim, AstraZeneca, and GlaxoSmithKline.
Teva, the smallest of the 4 companies that manufacture inhalers has not yet made that commitment. But we hope to hear from them in the very near future.
What all of that means is that within a short time, the vast majority of Americans will pay no more than $35 at the pharmacy counter for the inhalers they purchase.
A Vermont resident recently told my office that she has to pay $320 a 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.
Now, 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 tired of being ripped off and paying astronomical prices for the prescription drugs they need to stay alive or to ease their pain.
Let me also take this moment to thank Lina Khan, the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission for taking on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry.
Last November, the FTC challenged how drug companies manipulate and play games with patents to keep low-cost generic drugs off the market – including asthma inhalers. By standing up to the drug companies, the FTC has helped deliver this major victory for the American people.
And it’s not just inhalers.
Last year, the CEO of Moderna committed during a HELP Committee hearing that his company would set up a patient assistance program so that no one in America would have to pay for their vaccines 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.
These efforts will improve life for millions of Americans. They will prevent unnecessary deaths, ease suffering and save substantial sums of money for working class families.
But, let us be clear, despite all that we've accomplished up to now, it is not enough. Much, much more needs to be done.
In his State of the Union address, President Biden called on Congress to pass legislation to cap out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for all Americans at no more than $2,000 a year and to substantially increase the number of drugs that can be negotiated with the pharmaceutical industry. I strongly agree with him.
And think of what that will mean for people the people in our country, many of whom who have a myriad of chronic illnesses. No more than $2000 out of pocket! That is a very significant step forward.
And, as Chairman of the HELP Committee, I intend to push that legislation as aggressively as I can.
In my view, we can no longer tolerate companies like Novo Nordisk charging the American people some $1,000 a month for Ozempic – a drug that costs less than $5 to manufacture – when that exact same product is sold in Germany for $59. $1000 in America, $59 in Germany. Unacceptable.
We can no longer tolerate Astellas and Pfizer charging Americans with prostate cancer over $165,000 for Xtandi when that exact same product can be purchased for just $20,000 in Japan.
Even more disturbing is the reality that over half of the new drugs coming onto the market today cost $300,000, while a number of them actually cost over $1 million. This is an issue that we must, must get a handle on.
Working together, we can take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and substantially lower the cost of prescription drugs in America. And, when we do that, we will be lowering the cost of health care in our country which is double the cost of any other major nation on Earth.
I want to thank President Biden for what he has done on this issue up to now, and I look forward to working with the President as we go forward.
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