NYT: Drug Makers Raise Prices in Face of Health Care Reform

[seafan]

Is anyone surprised in the least to hear about this?


Duff Wilson writes in the NYT:

November 15, 2009

Even as drug makers promise to support Washington’s health care overhaul by shaving $8 billion a year off the nation’s drug costs after the legislation takes effect, the industry has been raising its prices at the fastest rate in years.

In the last year, the industry has raised the wholesale prices of brand-name prescription drugs by about 9 percent, according to industry analysts. That will add more than $10 billion to the nation’s drug bill, which is on track to exceed $300 billion this year. By at least one analysis, it is the highest annual rate of inflation for drug prices since 1992.

The drug trend is distinctly at odds with the direction of the Consumer Price Index, which has fallen by 1.3 percent in the last year.
Drug makers say they have valid business reasons for the price increases. Critics say the industry is trying to establish a higher price base before Congress passes legislation that tries to curb drug spending in coming years.

“When we have major legislation anticipated, we see a run-up in price increases,” says Stephen W. Schondelmeyer, a professor of pharmaceutical economics at the University of Minnesota. He has analyzed drug pricing for AARP, the advocacy group for seniors that supports the House health care legislation that the drug industry opposes.

A Harvard health economist, Joseph P. Newhouse, said he found a similar pattern of unusual price increases after Congress added drug benefits to Medicare a few years ago, giving tens of millions of older Americans federally subsidized drug insurance. Just as the program was taking effect in 2006, the drug industry raised prices by the widest margin in a half-dozen years.

“They try to maximize their profits,” Mr. Newhouse said.

.....

This is what we can anticipate when the White House makes secret deals with the devil BIG PHARMA.



"The drug companies form the most powerful lobby in Washington," he said. "They never lose."
---US Senator Bernie Sanders, 2009

[Ganja Ninja]

1. Then repeal the laws on generics and take away their patent protections.

Let's see how they react to just the threat of that.

[inna]

2. Not suprised at all.

But even more disappointed by this travesty of a "health reform".

They must think the American people are really, really stupid. :shrug:

[old mark]

3. Yes, they do - and they are largely correct. nt

[FiveGoodMen]

5. "They must think the American people are really, really stupid"

Or really, really helpless.

[INdemo]

4. To purchase name brand antiviral medication last week would have cost

$400.00 for 800mg capsules 10 day supply(@4 times a day)..A generic supply was 23.00 with discount card..The name brand would not accept discount card...Now why the big difference..Now I dont know why the name brand is so expensive but the same drug order direct from a Canadian pharmacy is 139.00
The problem is something should have been done years ago when this drug/insurance monopoly began their price fixing scheme that Congress could have stopped but refused to act......But then we had a Republican majority then..but as it turns out most of the Democrats are owned by this industry too.
So my question is are lobbyists allowed to lobby for drug comapnies in Canada..With their system we nver hear the word lobbyist mentioned.

[seafan]

6. Adding insult to injury: Genentech lobbyists spamming the Congressional record...

Luke Sharrett/The New York Times

“One of the reasons I have long supported the U.S. biotechnology industry is that it is a homegrown success story that has been an engine of job creation in this country.” This written statement by Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina on the health care bill was identical to one by Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer and used language suggested by lobbyists.



Robert Pear writes in the NYT:


November 14, 2009

WASHINGTON — In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident.

Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies.
E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans.
The lobbyists, employed by Genentech and by two Washington law firms, were remarkably successful in getting the statements printed in the Congressional Record under the names of different members of Congress.

Genentech, a subsidiary of the Swiss drug giant Roche, estimates that 42 House members picked up some of its talking points — 22 Republicans and 20 Democrats, an unusual bipartisan coup for lobbyists.

.....

In an e-mail message to fellow lobbyists on Nov. 5, two days before the House vote, Todd M. Weiss, senior managing director of Sonnenschein, said, “We are trying to secure as many House R’s and D’s to offer this/these statements for the record as humanly possible.”
He told the lobbyists to “conduct aggressive outreach to your contacts on the Hill to see if their bosses would offer the attached statements (or an edited version) for the record.”

In recent years, Genentech’s political action committee and lobbyists for Roche and Genentech have made campaign contributions to many House members, including some who filed statements in the Congressional Record. And company employees have been among the hosts at fund-raisers for some of those lawmakers. But Evan L. Morris, head of Genentech’s Washington office, said, “There was no connection between the contributions and the statements.”

.....

Mr. President, do you think that the American people who put you in office will accept this domination of our government by PHARMA lobbyists?



Mr. President, we want single payer Medicare for All as the law of the land. A few, well-placed Executive Orders will achieve this for the people.



There is simply no more time to waste and no more excuses for inaction while existing rights are whittled away daily by the teamwork of evangelical extremists, Catholic bishops, Big Insurance, Big Pharma, Wall Street gangster banksters, warmongers and right wing judiciary.



We are gripped at the throat by the fierce urgency of NOW, Mr. President.