This post was originally published on this site
The top executives of three major companies are set to appear on Thursday before a Senate panel led by Mr. Sanders, who has made lowering drug costs a signature issue.
The chief executives of three major pharmaceutical companies are set to appear in front of the Senate health committee on Thursday to defend how much they charge for drugs in the United States, drawing them further into a confrontation with lawmakers and the Biden administration over the cost of some of the most widely used prescription medications.
The three executives scheduled to testify — Joaquin Duato of Johnson & Johnson, Robert M. Davis of Merck and Christopher Boerner of Bristol Myers Squibb — are expected to clash with the health committee’s chairman, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who has made reining in drug prices a signature cause of his late-career years in Congress.
Mr. Sanders plans to focus the hearing on why drug prices are higher in the United States than in other wealthy countries. His staff has singled out several widely used drugs, including Eliquis, a blood thinner made by Bristol Myers Squibb, and Januvia, a diabetes drug from Merck, that can be bought for much less in Canada and Europe than in the United States.
The hearing comes as a new federal program authorizing Medicare to negotiate the prices of some costly medications is getting underway. Federal health officials last week made their initial offers to the makers of the first 10 drugs selected for negotiations, a list that includes Eliquis and Januvia.
Five of the 10 drugs picked for price talks are made by the companies whose executives will be testifying on Thursday. Drug makers, including all three companies that will be represented at the hearing, have filed a flurry of lawsuits arguing that the negotiation program is unconstitutional.