Part of an ongoing CtWatchdog series on high drug and medical prices
Mass. Senator Elizabeth Warren has invited Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day to explain his company’s high drug prices.
O’Day must be tickled pink to have to explain to the Senate and to America why his company is charging high prices for new drugs for hepatitis C and Covid 19.
O’Day will have an opportunity to testify before the Senate Finance Committee on “Promoting Domestic Competition and International Competitiveness.”
While noting that “the prohibitively high prices of Gilead’s drugs have made it hard for patients to access the lifesaving treatments they need, forced taxpayers to bear the brunt of high costs, and inhibited competition,” Warren said she’s offering O’Day “an opportunity to offer context on pharmaceutical competition and the burden of high drug prices on patients and the American public,” according to an article in Endpointsnews.
“In your testimony,” Warren’s the invitation concludes, “please provide the Committee with your assessment of the impact of Gilead’s high drug prices on individuals in need of life-saving but expensive medications; the current state of innovation and competition in the pharmaceutical industry; and the steps Congress could take to increase competition and ensure drugs are priced at fair levels consistent with their value, taxpayer input in de-risking their development, and the limited healthcare budgets of public and private payers.
O’Day “previously testified before a House committee in 2019 on the company’s HIV drug franchise. A little more than a year ago, Gilead also sued the CDC, accusing the agency of breaking longstanding agreements by “secretly” obtaining patents on Truvada and failing to notify the company for nearly a decade, the article written by Zachary Brennan.
