Does this headline make anyone else furious? It should… but if it doesn’t, you may want to educate yourself on some Bad Pharma atrocities that have gone unchecked.
Rather than a headline, this is the name given to a House Oversight hearing that was held today, and can be viewed here.
Even though Congress has held numerous hearings on high drug prices over the past several months, we wanted to take a moment to highlight this hearing as there are numerous patient groups who are participating and involved in making sure that this corporate bad behavior is brought out of the shadows and into the light.
Unfortunately for Big Pharma, the devil is in the skyrocketing pricing details:
One Big Pharma company in particular was the focus of this hearing. The company owns the patent on a transformative HIV prevention drug that can save and change lives. But it was brought out in the hearing that the government primarily funded the development of the drug through public taxpayer funds. What gives?
Patient assistance programs are often used as cover for these companies, yet in reality patients continually report that the programs are not very helpful or useful for accessing medications. What gives?
The medication costs almost $2,000 in the U.S. each month, yet people in Australia pay $8 and some countries offer it for even less. What gives?
Here’s what was painfully obvious in this hearing – Excuses via slick messaging intended for the uneducated ain’t working. There aren’t many uneducated people out there anymore, particularly in these Congressional Hearings since the playbook has been overplayed and is way past worn out.
Real people are suffering and dying when there are medications available but not widely accessible, while Big Pharma continues to increase their profits. Case closed… or at least it should be.
You can watch the full hearing here.