Senate Finance Committee and House Oversight Committee Take Aim at Drug Pricing

The U.S. Senate Finance Committee and the House Oversight Committee started hearings on Tuesday, January 29, focused on dealing with high drug prices. In the Finance Committee hearing, chair of the committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley, (R-IA), began by saying tackling high prescription drug prices was a priority and attacked pharmaceutical companies for agreeing to speak privately at the hearing, but not publicly. “I want to express my displeasure at the lack of cooperation from the pharmaceutical manufacturers recently,” Grassley stated. During the hearing, Grassley also vowed to do something about insulin price increases, stating, “I have heard stories about people reducing their life-saving medicines, like insulin, to save money. This is unacceptable and I intend to specifically get to the bottom of the insulin price increase.”
It’s a somewhat ironic point, given that it was only about two weeks ago that NBC reported on federal government employees being forced to ration their insulin because of the government shutdown because they could no longer afford their $300 copays. To be fair, the American Medical Association (AMA) has also called on the government to investigate rising prices for insulin, which in the U.S. has seen an almost 200-percent increase from 2002 to 2013.