WASHINGTON (WCAX) – Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday released a new report detailing what he calls a rigged system that allows drugmakers to charge Americans the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.
Sanders chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The report from HELP comes as Medicare starts its first-ever negotiations with drugmakers over the cost of 10 expensive medications.
Drug companies have argued the negotiations could chill their research and development, leading to fewer new medications.
In the report, Sanders, I-Vermont, once again takes the pharmaceutical industry to task, highlighting the cost of three blockbuster drugs that are far more expensive in the U.S. than in other countries. Among them, the annual list price of Bristol Myers Squibb’s Eliquis, a blood thinner that reduces the risk of stroke, is $7,100 in the U.S. but less than $1,000 in Japan, Canada, Germany and the U.K.
Click here to read the full report.
