NEWS: Chairman Sanders and All Democratic Members of the HELP Committee Invite Big Pharma CEOs to Testify at Hearing on Outrageously High Drug Prices

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 – In letters signed by every Democratic member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) today invited CEOs from major pharmaceutical companies Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Bristol Myers Squibb to testify before the committee on the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs.

The hearing is titled “Why Does the United States Pay, By Far, The Highest Prices In The World For Prescription Drugs?” and is scheduled to take place Thursday, January 25, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. ET.

“Here are some of the questions that the American people would like answers to,” the senators wrote in their letter inviting the pharmaceutical CEOs to testify in the HELP Committee. “Why does the United States pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs? How does it happen that one out of four Americans cannot afford to take the medicine their doctors prescribe while prescription drug companies make billions in profits and pay their executives exorbitant compensation packages? How does it happen that the median price of new prescription drugs in the United States was over $220,000 last year, while the pharmaceutical industry spent billions on stock buybacks and dividends?”

Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Bristol Myers Squibb sell some of the most expensive and widely prescribed drugs in the U.S. relative to the price of those drugs in other countries.

For example, Merck sells Januvia, a drug for diabetes, for $6,000 in the U.S. compared to just $900 in Canada and $200 in France

Johnson & Johnson sells Imbruvica, a drug for blood cancer, for $204,000 in the U.S. compared to just $46,000 in the U.K. and $43,000 in Germany.

Bristol Myers Squibb sells Eliquis, a blood thinner, for $6,700 in the U.S. compared to just $900 in Canada and $650 in France.

In 2022, Johnson & Johnson made $17.9 billion in profit and its CEO, Joaquin Duato, received $27.6 million in compensation. That same year, Merck made $14.5 billion in profit and its CEO, Robert Davis, made $52.5 million in compensation; while Bristol Myers Squibb made $6.3 billion in profits and its former CEO, Giovanni Caforio, made $41.4 million in compensation.

“The American people have a right to know why it is that they pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs while the pharmaceutical industry in the U.S. makes hundreds of billions in profits and pays their CEOs tens of millions of dollars in compensation,” said Chairman Sanders. “I look forward to hearing from the CEOs of large pharmaceutical companies directly on this critical issue. I also look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate to lower the outrageously high price of prescription drugs. A life-saving drug is not effective if the patient who needs that drug cannot afford it.”

Read the letter to Johnson & Johnson CEO, Joaquin Duato, here.
Read the letter to Merck CEO, Robert Davis, here.
Read the letter to Bristol Myers Squibb CEO, Chris Boerner, here.