big pharma

On Monday, The New York Times ran a damning story detailing how the nation’s drug makers are hiking their prices ahead of the reform laws winding their way through Congress. The very next day, some powerful House Democrats called for a closer look, asking the Government Accountability Office to examine the drug industry to verify [...]

It came as little surprise when Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) yesterday moved  to kill efforts to lower seniors’ drug costs by squeezing Big Pharma. After all, Baucus earlier in the year had agreed to a controversial deal with the drug lobby, under which the drug companies vowed to support health reform legislation [...]

Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) just shot out a statement reacting to the recent deal cut between the White House and the pharmaceutical industry to trim prescription drug costs for millions of Medicare patients. Here’s a hint: They’re not terribly impressed.
“Even with PhRMA’s offer to help seniors,” says Dorgan, “American consumers will [...]

President Obama today made official an $80 billion deal with the pharmaceutical industry to cut prescription drug costs for the nation’s seniors.
As it is, Medicare patients are forced to pay the full cost for their prescription drugs when annual expenses fall between $2,700 and $6,154. Under the new agreement, drug companies would pick of 50 [...]