Drug companies raised the prices on hundreds of medications on Jan. 1, with most prices up 5% to 6% on average. In addition, a report says that Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Pfizer are among the companies and trade groups to have donated $8 million to Republicans who voted against certifying Biden’s election victory.
Pharma Prices
- Some pharma companies have seemingly defied the emphasis on drug costs by raising drug prices.
- Change is coming to prescription drug pricing, whether it’s painful or not for pharmaceutical companies,” Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar said in a speech Monday at a health policy conference.
- “The drug companies that recently increased prices will be remembered for creating a tipping point in U.S. drug pricing policy,” Azar said.
- Drug prices were raised because Wall Street is their primary customer, not patients.
- Today the media attracts readers with sensational headlines,but rarely researches data in-depth to provide readers with unbiased content.
- Stories attacking drug prices continue to ignore the real problem with healthcare costs such as the costs of preventable health problems and rising costs of a hospital stay.
- Pharma tries to fight back via PhRMA, but because they are the lobbying arm of the pharmaceutical industry their credibility is very low.
- The only way to win the hearts and minds of people is by a “human” approach to drug marketing and putting a personality on big drug companies.