Rep. Katie Porter Makes Pharma Exec Squirm Over Cancer Drug Price Hikes

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The congresswoman relentlessly grilled the former Celgene CEO for earning bonuses off the backs of cancer patients.

The lawmaker delivered one of her textbook takedowns during a House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing Wednesday with current and former executives of three major drug companies. The committee is investigating the high cost of prescription drugs in the U.S.

Porter began her grilling of Mark Alles, the CEO of Celgene until 2019, by asking about the company’s repeated price hikes of the cancer drug Revlimid. It now costs $763 per pill ― up from $215 in 2005. Alles explained that the drug was approved for new indications, but Porter stopped him to ask if that had changed the pill in any way.

“Did the drug start to work faster?” she asked. “Were there fewer side effects? How did you change the formula or production of Revlimid to justify this price increase?”Porter then outlined how the average senior citizen in her district could not even afford one pill:That's the bonus a Big Pharma CEO got for hiking the price of ONE cancer treatment drug.

How many patients lost their lives because they couldn't afford this medicine? Here's our conversation:

 

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How many people donate to Gofundme campaigns for cancer patients and then those funds just go directly to executive bonuses and shareholders? This system of healthcare is corrupt.

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Watch Rep. Katie Porter grill pharma exec over cancer drug price hikesRep. Porter (D-Calif.) questioned ex-Celgene CEO Mark Alles during a House Oversight Committee investigation into the pricing of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s cancer drug Revlimid. It's good to know that even pharma executives can come across as worthy of sympathy (not really:)) Watching Katie Porter own terrible people is my kink! 💙 Yeah... these are cool and all seeing White Collar guys get hammered for 30 minutes, but haven’t seen seen plenty of this? I’ll take a verbal beat down knowing nothing is really going to change. So yeah.. cool they lost a battle, but how’s the War going?
Source: NBCNews - 🏆 10. / 86 Read more »