Pharmaceutical Company CEOs Face Grilling in Senate Over High Drug Prices
Senators called pharmaceutical industry leaders to account for the high costs of medicine during a Senate hearing. The executives deflected blame to insurance companies and middlemen.
The leaders of seven drug industry giants were forced to defend their industry's prices and business practices on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, as lawmakers criticized them for failing to put patients before profits.
"Prescription drugs did not become outrageously expensive by accident," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. "Drug prices are astronomically high because that's where pharmaceutical companies and their investors want them."
The pharmaceutical company leaders, testifying at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, acknowledged that their prices are high for many patients, but they deflected blame onto the insurance industry, government and middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers.
They each acknowledged briefly
