A New York Times editorial from today states what we already know: drug prices continue to increase for everything and anything pharma can make a few more dollars on. I don’t know why these articles surprise me… maybe they just get the juices flowing. We’ve seen some great quotes from pharma spokespeople before:
“Our duty is to our shareholders.” – Laurie Little, spokesperson, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, WSJ, April 26, 2015
But it’s nice to see the editorial board at the Grey Lady acknowledge the real issue here:
“The drug and biotech companies contend that high prices are justified to cover the large costs of bringing a drug to market and to compensate for the large number of drugs that fail in late stages of costly clinical trials. But it appears that many companies raise prices arbitrarily and charge what public and private insurers will pay.” [Emphasis added]
The public has to stand up and fight back.