The pharmaceutical lobby strongly opposed the Biden administration’s plan to directly negotiate drug prices for 10 medications with Medicare. PhRMA argued this will hurt innovation, but advocates note that drug companies make 76% more than needed for R&D. Eliquis, which costs Medicare over $16 billion, will be subject to negotiations. The policy was enabled by the Inflation Reduction Act, which PhRMA spent millions lobbying against. PhRMA sued over the negotiations, but the DOJ moved to dismiss the case. Advocates believe this defeat of Big Pharma will not be the last as negotiations may expand to over 100 drugs in the future, greatly helping seniors and people with disabilities access affordable medications.
Big Pharma: we need to charge extortion rates to pay for R&D
Public: oh, cool, so you are using that money to pay the research, and not taking half of it in management bonus?
Big Pharma: …
Public: You are not pocketing half of it right, right?
Big Pharma: COMMUNISTS!!! The CEO needs the 3rd yacht otherwise he’ll refuse to sign on the research, do you want that?
Sounds like a CEO needs to stop ordering coffee and eating avocado toast.
Of course they’re not pocketing half of it. They’re pocketing the 75%