Senator Hassan, Colleagues Stand Up to Big Pharma on High Prescription Drug Prices

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan joined her colleagues in pressing the CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) for answers, after PhRMA’s inadequate response to the group’s questions about two recent analyses revealing troubling, widespread, and rapid price increases for brand name drugs in January 2022. PhRMA’s response to the lawmakers’ initial letter failed to answer key questions. Instead, the trade group for brand drug companies provided misleading information about brand drug manufacturers’ price increases and their impact on patients at the pharmacy counter.

“Your letter was simply unresponsive to our concerns, leading to one clear conclusion: there is no good explanation for drug manufacturers’ behavior other than corporate profiteering,” wrote the lawmakers. “Congress and the public deserve clear answers about brand name drug price increases affecting millions of Americans.”

The letter from the lawmakers noted multiple problems with PhRMA’s response:

PhRMA provided misleading information about brand drug manufacturers’ price increases. PhRMA claimed, despite the evidence, that manufacturers were not increasing brand name drug prices. To justify this claim, PhRMA presented highly misleading data that conflate brand name drug prices with generic prices, despite the fact that brand name drug manufacturers generally face little competition, while the generic drug market tends to be highly competitive.  

PhRMA also provided misleading information about the impact of drug manufacturers’ price increases on patients at the pharmacy counter. The Senators cited a detailed analysis by experts from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard University that concluded that “patients with deductibles and coinsurance pay more when manufacturers raise a drug’s list price and do not directly benefit from confidential rebates paid by manufacturers to insurers.” 

The Senators wrote to PhRMA, “Contrary to the assertions in your response, the rapid and broad increases in brand name drug manufacturer list prices are ultimately passed on to patients at the pharmacy counter.”

PhRMA also misled by attempting to shift blame away from drug manufacturers. The Senators wrote in their letter, “Even a PhRMA-funded study reveals, not surprisingly, that brand name drug manufacturers receive more revenue from the sales of their drugs than any other individual entity in the supply chain.”

The Senators requested that PhRMA provide full and complete responses to their questions no later than March 22, 2022. To read the lawmakers’ response to PhRMA, click here. To read the response from PhRMA, click here.

Senator Hassan is working across the aisle to stand up to Big Pharma and lower health care costs for Granite Staters. Senator Hassan has pushed to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices and also advanced bipartisan legislation in 2019 to lower prescription drugs costs by enacting a cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for Medicare Part D beneficiaries and cracking down on pharmaceutical companies that raise drug prices higher than inflation. In addition, Senator Hassan led successful, bipartisan efforts with Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) to help end the practice of surprise medical billing, which is now in effect. Senators Hassan and Cassidy also successfully passed into law their bipartisan legislation to enhance education about biosimilar drug products in an effort to increase competition and lower drug costs.

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