Fair, or not, pharma is going to continue to come under fire because of high drug prices, but what’s missing is the key fact that even if controls were implemented for prescription drug prices our health care costs would still be escalating. Here is a presentation on high drug prices with some sobering statistics.
KEY TAKEAWAY: Mr Trump’s plan to curtail drug prices was long on slogans and short on substance. To understand who the winners were just follow the money via Wall Street.
Barry Werth, who has written two fine books about the biotech company Vertex,and says the the reason pharma raises prices is simple: “Because they can.”.
KEY TAKEAWAY: Shares of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies retreated after President-elect Donald Trump vowed in a magazine article to crack down on drug prices. Drug stocks fell after Mr. Trump was quoted in a Time Person of the Year article as saying: “I’m going to bring down drug prices.” Better put that champagne on ice.
KEY TAKEAWAY: Pharma CEO’s are NOT celebrating the election of Donal Trump and are in fact worried about the incoming administration’s stance on drug pricing.
KEY TAKEAWAY: The major contributor to soaring drug list prices is continual and progressive rebating demands by Big Insurance and the PBMs.
Wall Street investors, from 2012 to the middle of 2015, have poured more than $50 billion in new capital into the pharma industry, according to Leerink, an investment bank that does equity research. That influx of cash shifted the character of the industry, says John Rother, head of the nonpartisan advocacy group National Coalition on Health Care. Instead of focusing on time-consuming R&D, drug companies began worrying more about delivering short-term gains to shareholders, he explains.