What made me want to post on this topic was last month I got ticket shock when I picked up my meds and were told that it would be $536 for a month’s supply.

Then I started wondering what had happened to all those promises from Biden and his Dem cohorts…..what is going on these days with our drug prices?

There is a fight coming over the Medicare pricing reform….PhARMA is not happy and has gone to court….

A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit that the pharmaceutical industry’s powerful trade group and allied organizations filed in an attempt to kill Medicare’s new drug price negotiation program, which threatens manufacturers’ virtually unrestrained power to drive up the prices of lifesaving medicines.

Judge David Alan Ezra of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas tossed the lawsuit on procedural grounds, ruling that the National Infusion Center Association (NICA)—which does not manufacture or sell prescription drugs—lacked standing to sue.

Because NICA was the only plaintiff based in Texas, Ezra—a Reagan appointee—dismissed the lawsuit, which was joined by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and the Global Colon Cancer Association. The coalition argued that the Medicare price negotiation program is unconstitutional, a claim that advocates have dismissed as cover for the industry’s attempt to protect its profits.

A spokesperson for PhRMA, which spends tens of millions of dollars a year lobbying Congress, told Axios in a statement that the group is “disappointed” with the judge’s decision and is weighing its next legal steps.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/judge-tosses-pharma-lawsuit

At least one judge is on our side but I would not get too cocky….if it goes to SCOTUS it will screw us mere peasants for at least one spouse of a sitting judge is in the pocket of PhARMA.

Speaking of lobbyists….last year, 2022, PhARMA spent $374 million on buying support from Congress.

Then there is whopping bonuses the CEOs are raking in…..

Could any corporate execs walking our world today be any greedier than the execs who run Big Pharma? Hard to say. But out-grasping Big Pharma, suggests a new report out of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, would certainly require some serious greed.

Consider, for instance, the pay record of the Big Pharma colossus Johnson & Johnson.

Two years ago, Johnson & Johnson pocketed $17.9 billion in profits and rewarded its CEO with $27.6 million in compensation. That same year, overall, saw Johnson & Johnson lay out $17.8 billion on stock buybacks, dividends, and executive pay — and only $14.6 billion on R&D.

“In other words,” the Senate panel’s report noted, “the company spent $3.2 billion more enriching executives and stockholders than finding new cures.”

New Hope for a Check on CEO Compensation

Did you read that?   PhARMA spent more on stock buy backs than it did on R&D….recovering R&D is one of the excuses for high prices.

Enough is enough!

Promises do not pay the bills….time to get serious about controlling drug prices or STFU and go home!

Pharmaceutical companies are angry with Bernie Sanders. The Vermont senator has vowed to force pharma CEOs to publicly answer for why their drug prices are so much higher in the United States than in other nations.

Brazenly, the CEOs of Johnson & Johnson and Merck initially refused.

An attorney for Johnson & Johnson accused the senator of using Senate committee hearings to “punish the companies who have chosen to engage in constitutionally protected litigation.” The company, along with Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb, issuing the Biden administration for allowing Medicare to regulate certain prescription drug prices.

For the last two decades, it’s been a free-for-all for pharmaceutical companies in the U.S.

In 2003, then-President George W. Bush signed a Medicare reform bill into law, promising help for seniors struggling to pay for medications. But that law stripped the federal government of its power to negotiate drug prices for Medicare’s participants. And that’s driven drug prices up for everyone.

Drug Prices Should be Controlled

Will us peasants ever be the one thing on Congress’ collective mind?  Or are we just a means to an end?

I believe the later is true.

How about you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”