Hill February 8, 2024
Drug company CEOs were in the hot seat Thursday, as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) sought to harness the anger over high drug prices into action.
During a showy Senate Health Committee hearing, Sanders pressed the CEOs of Merck, Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb about why their medicines cost so much more in the U.S. compared to other countries.
“The overwhelming beneficiary of high drug prices in America is the pharmaceutical industry,” Sanders said Thursday. “The United States government does not regulate drug companies. With a few exceptions, the drug companies regulate the United States government.”
He focused on several widely used drugs, including blood thinner Eliquis from Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck’s cancer drug Keytruda, and...