Senate Democrats Continue Probe Into Trump’s Sweetheart Deals for Big Pharma, Seeking Evidence That American Taxpayers Will Benefit from Lower Costs
Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., led 6 Senate Democrats in an effort to continue seeking details from major pharmaceutical companies about their so-called deals with the Trump administration, in particular, any evidence that these deals will benefit American patients and taxpayers in terms of savings to the Medicaid program.
“We write today to seek more information from [company] about which drugs are subject to the Medicaid components of your agreement with the Trump administration and whether the prices you will make available on these drugs are actually lower than the net pricing states currently receive on the same products in Medicaid,” the senators wrote. “It is difficult to discern what American patients and taxpayers stand to gain from your agreement with the Trump Administration.”
The letters, sent to AbbVie, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Genentech, Gilead, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, and Sanofi, ask for specific pricing information on which drugs will be affected by the announcements, what the “most favored nation” price is for those drugs, and what state Medicaid programs will pay in the wake of these announcements.
Wyden has sounded the alarm about Trump’s broken promise to lower the cost of prescription drugs. Late last year, Wyden requested similar information from Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. Wyden also joined his colleagues in the House of Representatives seeking details about other elements of drug manufacturers’ agreements with the Trump administration. Last month, Wyden led the announcement of a new effort by Senate Democrats to lower drug costs for Americans.
The letter was co-signed by Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; John Hickenlooper, D-Colo.; Chris Murphy, D-Conn.; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
The full text of the letter can be found here.
A web version of this release is here.