Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) this week voted to summon the CEOs of two major pharmaceutical companies to a hearing on drug pricing before the Department of Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) on January 31st. They announced that they are planning to do so. ) committee after refusing to testify last year.
The subpoena against Johnson & Johnson CEO Joaquín Duato and Merck CEO Robert Davis alleges drug costs are “significantly higher” than in other countries, the statement said. He will be asked to testify as to why.
But some executives see the pending subpoenas as a form of retaliation for the legal battle over Medicare price negotiations.
“The CEOs of Johnson & Johnson and Merck have rejected a request from the majority of the HELP Committee to come before Congress to address the exorbitant prices of prescription drugs,” Sanders said. This is completely unacceptable.” “These CEOs may earn tens of millions of dollars in compensation. The pharmaceutical companies they run may earn billions of dollars in profits.”
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Sanders speaks at a hearing on Thursday, June 8, 2023, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
Brian, Johnson & Johnson's attorney, said Sanders asked Duato and Davis to testify about drug pricing in November, but they instead “addressed the issue and expressed Johnson & Johnson's position.” He insisted that a senior pharmaceutical company executive in the best position to give an explanation should appear in court. D. Smith was dispatched to Mr. Sanders this week following the announcement of the subpoena.
“Johnson & Johnson invites senior pharmaceutical company executives who are best positioned to explain and provide Johnson & Johnson's position on the issues raised in your invitation to attend the hearing. “I have offered to do so,” Smith wrote. “Through these discussions, Johnson & Johnson also sought to clarify the direction the Committee is taking in this hearing, including why Johnson & Johnson's CEO is not an appropriate witness for this hearing. “We appreciate the opportunity to restate our concerns.” We have previously communicated this to your staff over the past three months. We strongly recommend that you consider allowing the committee to hear from appropriate executives on these topics. ”
Johnson Medical Products, a division of Johnson & Johnson, Markham, Ontario. (St. Petersburg)
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Two drug companies, along with others, are currently suing to freeze Medicare drug price negotiations under President Biden's Inflation Control Act. Jennifer Zachary, Merck's executive vice president, also sent a letter to Sanders this week suggesting that the CEOs' request to testify before the Senate committee was a form of “retaliation” for the ongoing lawsuit.
“We are grateful that many committee members have expressed their opposition to our case and respect their honest opinions. Your public criticism and comments about the hearing witnesses demonstrate that the invitation to testify was unintentional.'' ,” Zachary wrote.
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“The CEO is not the subject matter expert within the company who can explain all the different aspects of the drug supply chain,” Joe Grogan, former domestic policy adviser to former President Trump, said in an interview on Fox News Digital. other governments.
“To put it simply, it's completely un-American,” Grogan said. “So these companies have every right to go to court, every right to sue, and it's no coincidence that he's targeting these three companies.”
