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Senators Open Investigation Into Drug Pricing; Request Documents from Valeant, Turing
Back in September, Turing Pharma CEO Martin Shkreli caused a veritable firestorm when he moved to boost the price of a toxoplasmosis drug by 5000%.
That rather egregious example of unbridled greed immediately caused the American public as well as lawmakers in Washington to begin taking a closer look at a practice that, as we noted when the whole Turing debacle began, happens all the time in Big Pharma even if they’re careful to be a bit less audacious about it than Shkreli.
Hillary Clinton herself took aim at the industry in a tweet which promptly tanked biotech shares proving that when it comes to moving markets, perhaps Janet Yellen doesn’t have anything on America’s political aristocracy.
Indeed, the scrutiny on beleaguered Valeant and its relationship with Philidor doesn't seem set to abate anytime soon (sorry Bill). Via Bloomberg:
Weeks before Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. said it would cut ties with Philidor Rx Services, the drugmaker was planning to expand its use of the mail-order pharmacy, said three people familiar with the matter.
Philidor was on the brink of becoming a larger part of Valeant’s operations as the drugmaker planned to widen the pharmacy’s role beyond dermatology to other lines of medications, the people said.
Philidor also hired a number of former Valeant employees, according to an outside spokeswoman for Valeant. The workers, part of a group of about 30 people that helped show doctors how to direct patients to Valeant products, were dismissed by the drugmaker, with severance, before being subsequently hired by Philidor, the spokeswoman said. They followed a Valeant manager named Gary Tanner who, before leaving Valeant in September, led the drugmaker’s so-called Access Team, she said.
There's your "limited" relationship.
Don’t look now but not only are House Democrats pushing for a vote to subpoena CEOs of Valeant and Turing to hand over documents on drug-price increases, but Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who together lead the Senate Special Committee on Aging, have opened a bipartisan investigation into pharmaceutical drug pricing.
In the crosshairs are Valeant, Turing, Retrophin (founded by Shkreli), and Rodelis.
From the press release
U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who together lead the Senate Special Committee on Aging, today announced a bipartisan Senate investigation into pharmaceutical drug pricing. The announcement follows a series of media reports detailing dramatic drug price increases—often on older, off-patent drugs—after the acquisition or merger of pharmaceutical companies.
"The sudden, aggressive price hikes for a variety of drugs used widely for decades affect patients and health care providers and the overall cost of health care. These substantial increases have the potential to inflate the cost of health care for Americans, especially our seniors, by hundreds of millions of dollars each year," said Chairman Collins. "Given the potential harm to patients across our country who rely on these drugs for critical care and treatment, the Senate Special Committee on Aging considers these massive price increases worthy of a serious, bipartisan investigation into the causes, impacts, and potential solutions."
"Some of the recent actions we've seen in the pharmaceutical industry—with corporate acquisitions followed by dramatic increases in the prices of pre-existing drugs—have looked like little more than price gouging," said McCaskill, former Missouri State Auditor and courtroom prosecutor. "We need to get to the bottom of why we're seeing huge spikes in drug prices that seemingly have no relationship to research and development costs. I'm proud to help lead this bipartisan investigation so that we can find some answers the public wants and deserves."
The Senators have requested documents and information from four pharmaceutical companies: Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Turing Pharmaceuticals, Retrophin Inc, and Rodelis Therapeutics. Each request focuses on drugs that have seen recent and significant spikes in price.
"We seek your cooperation with this investigation so that the Committee may better understand drug pricing and related regulatory and public policy concerns. In particular, the Committee wishes to learn more about Turing Pharmaceuticals' recent acquisition of the rights to sell Daraprim, a drug used to treat and prevent infections, from Impax Laboratories and Turing's subsequent decision to increase the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 [per tablet]," reads the Senators' letter to Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli.
The Committee's investigation will include an examination of:
- Substantial price increases on recently acquired off-patent drugs;
- Mergers and acquisitions within the pharmaceutical industry that have sometimes led to dramatic increases in off-patent drug prices; and
- The Food and Drug Administration's role in the drug approval process for generic drugs, the agency's distribution protocols, and, if necessary, its off-label regulatory regime.
- The Senate Special Committee on Aging has tentatively scheduled an initial hearing on this issue for December 9, 2015 and will hold subsequent hearings, as needed, in the following months.
Seniors account for 13 percent of the population but account for 34 percent of the all prescription medication used. More than 40 percent of seniors take five or more prescription drugs per day.
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LMFAO!!!! what about gold? real estate (anyone in prison for those MBS yet?) oil?
moral hazard is a real motherfucker.
Today's congressional investigators, tomorrows pharmaceutical company consultants......
Big Pharma doles out $179 million to politicos via 1300 lobbyists in 2015 ( and the year ain't over yet )
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/indusclient.php?id=h04
nothing will come of this charade; like always
"That rather egregious example of unbridled greed immediately caused the American public as well as lawmakers in Washington to begin taking a closer look at a practice that, as we noted when the whole Turing debacle began, happens all the time in Big Pharma even if they’re careful to be a bit less audacious about it than Shkreli."
People need to get a clue. This was all planned. Nobody in their right mind would think they could get away with raising the price of a drug by 5000%, especially a poster child for greed. Now, follow the money and see who really benefited from this and I'll give you a clue: it's initials start with HRC.
+1 Bullseye.
Hey Senators -- we found the parties responsible for the domestic cartel of drug pricing scams. It's you. Surrender now. Come out with your hands up.
Donation to the Clinton Fund skyrocket
Well, if re-importation laws went away, so would this.
Of course, so would most profits for US drugmakers.
So many cockroaches in this industry, it just cannot handle the influx of the VC cockroaches.
Love the guy flashing the gangsta sign in front of that TV with the car.
How fucking small is his penis?
pods
Doubletap
Sure would be a shame if something happened to that nice little specialty pharmacy of yours...
Big Pharma wants you sick. Treat the symptoms not the cause. Cause? Corruption in all three branches of governemnt, local government, state government, war profiteering and police brutality. Enough to make you sick!
Gee whiz...about fucking time. Won't do any good though. Dog and pony show.
Ya think they all are going to dump their stock in this sector or did they already ?
Pieces of shit, plain and simple.
Hopefully all of this price gauging enters the debates and starts to get attention.... one can dream?
So, let me get this straight.... Government steps in to regulate healtcare nationwide, mandating everyone have coverage, blah, blah, blah. Drug companies with a capitve audience can now charge whatever they want and proceed to do just that. Now the government steps in to "fix" the situation they themselves tilled the field wher the problem grew. And the solution will be, obviously, MORE government.
This isn't inocmpetence. This is a fucking coup d'etat of the entire country and we better start acting like we take it that seriously because they are NEVER going to stop on their own.
absolutely.... obviously they were tardy on their regularly scheduled bribes and the senate hearing is just to remind them of that
ND...you are probably my favorite commenter on the site although I like the good doctor too.
The game is over. Once these cockroaches have established a beach head we were over run. Congress gives these fuckers 20 year patent protection so they can gouge the shit out of us....look the other way on outrageous profits...while accepting re-election bribes. It's beyond sick and when you realize that the only way too stop this legally- is to pass legislation outlawing the conduct- by the people who actually pass the laws and take the bribes- then you realize the only way this ends is at the end of a gun barrel or rope.
Where are we on that timeline? Who knows? I'll tell ya this. I'll probably miss that revolution but if it started tomorrow, I'd be ready for it. My list is long.
I watched the research guy (his name escapes me) from Citron the other day on the BlowHorn defending his analysis on Valeant. It was comical to see him rip the face off of the bobblehead assclown asking him questions. They really have no shame defending obvious fraud on the BlowHorn.
I am hoping Valeant blows up Enron style, and takes very single "investor" down the fuckan drain with it.
Thanks for the kind words. I'm afraid of the same thing- they've opened a beach head against the will of the people (Obamacare has NEVER enjoyed popular support at any point from it's farcical debate in Congress through to today) and there's no way to roll it back, no matter who you put in office.
Doc and I are a little like twins separated at birth, I think. He and I have regularly posted near identical comments in the same thread without knowing what the other was posting. I like reading his stuff, too.
"Senators Open Investigation Into Drug Pricing"
Just another waste of time and money!
The out come (if there is one) is always the same...no falt found.
Now please send your "donation" to your favorite senator, big pharma.
I was in this business for 25+ years at a high level. Not anymore by choice. I had to finally go home and take a shower.
So, some senators are going to get to the bottom of drug pricing schemes? I can't stop laughing. Drug pricing is so opaque half the people in the business can't explain how it works. They will be baffled with bullshit and come out the other end of this complete waste of time and money knowing less than they do now. That is all.
Revenue forecasts by pharmaceutical companies never include discounts to PBMs like Express Scripts. Probably to keep the stock price up, with mark-to-model accounting to match.
Here's where it begins- AWP (Average Wholesale Price) minus a percentage leveraged by group size plus a "dispensing fee". On the buyside, they start at WAC (Wholesale Aquisition Cost). No two deals are ever the same. THEN, we can begin to go down the rebate rabbit hole...but don't EVER call them kickbacks! It's a cesspool.
So now was this all a set up to give us the affordable drug care act?
Want to see simular price gouging on an everyday basis, look at a hospital bill. It is all well documented. Then look at what the hospital (many are owned by religious orgs) charge those who are not insured (sometimes triple, often double, the already grossly inflated fees).
Name me a Senate or Congressional Committee that has achieved anything beyond hot air production.
Sorry, but if it's even possible to monopolize the production of a 60yr old, generic drug that's a problem with the system, not the "greed" of a single actor.
it worked for a short time. At the other end of the scale, many generic drugs have become commoditized to the extent that the price no longer covers production costs. These are the drugs that you hear shortage alerts about, and apply particularly to intravenous drugs in ampules, such as some chemotherapeutic agents, that have to be produced under highly regulated sterile conditions.
Drugs that aren't made because they can't cover production costs tend to be ones with government-mandated price-caps (see Hillary's stunt with vaccine producers while she was senator).
In any case, if the government can pay farmers/agg to perform the counter-productive task of turning corn turn into sugar they should be able to figure out how to support and foster a robust supply of commodity drugs.
It is certainly good to see leading Senators looking into drug pricing, which has a major effect on the wellbeing of our Senior citizens. Don’t forget the politics- Seniors vote in the highest percentage of any demographic group. Expect to see this “concern” for the elderly in campaign adds next year.
Yes, it's certainly good to know the fox is watching the hen house.
I was in meetings with CMS at the start of implementation of Part D. Scully had one foot out the door. I was informed within minutes by a CMS official that Part D had NOTHING to do with "helping seniors". There you have it.
W held stock in what was Advance Paradigm/AdvancePCS which was subsequently rolled up into the CVS/Caremark evil empire- yet another clue.
This kinda looks like the unreleased Citron Report. Smoking gun?
http://pdfsr.com/pdf/the-missing-piece
Setting any price you want is the whole point of patents. I guess the people who demanded something be done about those drugs that have caused deep losses, now have a place to complain when one is making "too much money".
Patents should not exist in the first place, because the freedom of expression gives us the right to put together words, colors, shapes, ingredients, etc any way we want to, and sell our own expressions at any price we deem fit. If someone doesn't like it when our own creations resemble someone else's, that is their problem, not ours.