U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks at a press conference on Capitol Hill concerning the 11 Senate Democrats who sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to invoke the 14th Amendment to avoid catastrophic debt default, in Washington, D.C., May 18, 2023 r. .
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
Senator Bernie Sanders has vowed to oppose President Joe Biden’s election to the presidency of the National Institutes of Health – and another health candidate – until the administration unveils a plan to lower prescription drug prices.
“I’ll oppose any appointments until now we have a really clear strategy from the federal government … as to how we’ll bring down the outrageously high cost of pharmaceuticals,” Sanders said late Monday in interview from The Washington Post.
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Sanders, who chairs the Senate Health Committee, controls when his panel evaluates candidates for the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Biden administration won’t have the option to substantiate the number of NIH director Dr. Monica Bertagnolla, or another current or future health agency candidate without the support of a Vermont independent.
Last month, the administration announced its intention to nominate Bertagnolli, a cancer surgeon who heads the National Cancer Institute.
The White House told the Post that Biden shares Sanders’ concerns about drug prices, which is why the president signed the Inflation Reduction Act, “an important bill to cope with the high cost of pharmaceuticals.”
The bill’s provision penalizes drugmakers for charging prices which might be rising faster than inflation for Medicare beneficiaries.
Lawmakers, researchers and advocates have repeatedly warned that drug prices within the US exceed those in other countries and ultimately harm Americans who need access to life-saving treatment.
Sanders, a frequent pharmaceutical critic, together with the Democratic majority of the committee released report Monday looks at the associated fee of pharmaceuticals that were developed with NIH funding and research.
The report found that Americans consistently pay higher prices for NIH-supported drugs in comparison with residents of other countries.
The White House said in a Monday statement that Biden shares Sanders’ concerns about drug prices – “that is why he signed the Inflation Reduction Act, probably the most consistent bill to cope with the high cost of pharmaceuticals.”
The bill’s provision penalizes drugmakers for charging prices which might be rising faster than inflation for Medicare beneficiaries.
In line with the report, the common price of recent treatments that NIH scientists have helped invent over the past twenty years is $111,000. Apart from one treatment, prices within the US exceeded those in other G7 countries, the report added.
For instance, a drug for severe mouth ulcers called Kepivance costs $19,000 within the US, in response to the report. However the treatment, developed by biotech company Sobi, costs just $5,000 in Italy.
The report also argued that federal officials had no way of ensuring that drug firms set reasonable prices for brand new drugs which might be partly funded by taxpayer support.
“The federal government also needs to stop giving out monopolies on public inventions,” the report said. It provided examples of how health officials appear to “give technology to taxpayers getting little in return.”