Eric Galatas, reporter/producer, Colorado News Connection, a bureau of Public News Service.
As advocacy groups take a victory lap for moving lawmakers to finally allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices for ten widely used medicines, a new report detailed how the makers of those drugs have gouged billions of taxpayer and consumer dollars.
Kyle Herrig, senior adviser for the group Accountable.US, said drugmakers have exploited U.S. patent laws to control prices for decades.
“These kinds of tactics keep prices high for the consumers,” Herrig pointed out. “And often lead to patients skipping doses, disproportionately impacting lower-income Black and Latin American communities.”
Drugmakers have routinely paid competitors to delay the introduction of cheaper generic versions of popular drugs. They have also kept prices high by resetting patent protections by slightly altering a drug to secure a second patent. Drug companies have long argued high prices are necessary to finance the development of new lifesaving medicines.
Even though U.S. taxpayers invested nearly $12 billion in the research and development of the drugs negotiated by Medicare, Herrig said pharmaceutical makers have also flooded the courts to keep prices high.
“Despite taking billions of taxpayer dollars for drug development, these big pharma companies unleashed an army of patent attorneys to keep lifesaving medication exclusive and more expensive for seniors and other patients,” Herrig contended.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., worked with groups, including AARP, to push Congress to allow Medicare to use its purchasing power to bring down drug prices. She said medications do not work if you cannot afford them.
“It is fine to make profits, but not to the extent that you’re actually hurting Americans’ health,” Klobuchar asserted. “In the United States of America, no one should be forced to choose between filling their prescriptions or filling their grocery carts.”
