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Greedy Pharma firms rip off Americans while Pfizer, Moderna swim in profits

5 of the largest US pharma firms totaled $80 billion in profits, but millions of Americans can’t afford medicine.

By Sen. Bernie Sanders

There is a lot of discussion about how "divided" our nation is and, on many issues, that is absolutely true. But on one of the most important matters facing our country the American people – Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Progressives, Conservatives – could not be more united. And that is the need to take on the unprecedented corporate greed of the pharmaceutical industry and to substantially lower the outrageously high price of prescription drugs.
Today, millions of Americans are making the unacceptable choice between feeding their families or buying the medicine they need. Seniors from Vermont to Alaska are forced to split pills in half and many have died because they did not have enough money to fill their prescriptions.

All over this country, the American people are asking why it is that they pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs?

Why is it that nearly one out of every four adults in America cannot afford their prescription medication?

Why do nearly half of all new drugs in the United States cost more than $150,000 a year?

Several years ago, I took a busload of people with diabetes from Detroit, Michigan, to a drugstore in Windsor, Ontario. There, they were able to purchase the same insulin products they bought in the United States for one-tenth the price.
How is it that in Canada and other major countries the same medications manufactured by the same companies, sold in the same bottles are available for a fraction of the price that we pay in the United States?

The answers can be summed up in three words: Follow the money.

Over the past 25 years, the pharmaceutical industry has spent $8.5 billion on lobbying and over $745 million on campaign contributions to buy politicians. Incredibly, last year, the drug companies hired over 1,700 lobbyists including the former congressional leaders of both major political parties – over 3 pharmaceutical industry lobbyists for every Member of Congress.

The situation has become so absurd that Pfizer donated a million dollars to the Republican Party in Kentucky to expand its headquarters named after Senator Mitch McConnell, after Pfizer increased its profits by 140% in 2021 to $22 billion.
Meanwhile, as Americans die because they cannot afford the medications they need, five of the largest drug companies in the U.S. made nearly $80 billion in profits last year (a 104% increase from the previous year) while the CEOs of just 13 pharmaceutical companies made over $1 billion in total compensation in 2021.

Over the past decade, 14 major pharmaceutical companies spent $747 billion not to make life-saving drugs more affordable, but to make their wealthy shareholders richer by buying back their own stock and handing out huge dividends – a sum that is $87 billion more than what they spent on research and development.
Examples of corporate greed within the pharmaceutical industry are limitless. Let's start with Moderna. This is a company that received $1.7 billion from U.S. taxpayers to research and develop the COVID-19 vaccine and billions more to distribute it to the American people. As a result, Moderna made $19 billion in profits over the past two years and its CEO (Stéphane Bancel) became a billionaire who is now worth over $6 billion. What is Moderna doing to thank the American taxpayer for their generous support? It plans to raise the price of the COVID-19 vaccine by 400% up to $130 when it goes on the commercial market. Meanwhile, it costs just $2.85 to manufacture the product. And, by the way, Moderna has already approved a $926 million golden parachute for Mr. Bancel once he leaves the company.

Moderna is far from alone. A number of years ago, the former CEO of Gilead became a billionaire by charging $1,000 for Sovaldi, a hepatitis C drug that was discovered by scientists at the Veterans Administration, costs just $1 to manufacture, and could be purchased in India for $4.
The Japanese drugmaker Astellas, which made a billion dollars in profits in 2021, recently raised the price of the prostate cancer drug Xtandi by more than 75% in the United States to nearly $190,000. This is a drug that was invented by federally funded scientists at UCLA and can be purchased in Canada for one-sixth the US price.

Last year over 1 million Americans with diabetes had to ration insulin because they could not afford to take it as prescribed. Why? In large part because Eli Lilly, which made $5.6 billion in profits in 2021, increased the price of Humalog by 1200% since 1996 to $275 while its CEO made nearly $50 million in compensation making him one of the highest-paid pharmaceutical CEOs in America. Humalog costs an estimated $8 to produce and can be purchased for about one-tenth the price in Canada.
It does not have to be this way. The reality is that if Congress had the courage to take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, we could cut the price of prescription drugs in America by at least 50%. How? By preventing the pharmaceutical industry from charging more for prescription drugs in the U.S. than they do in Canada, Britain, Germany, France and Japan – a concept that is not only supported by progressives, but former President Donald Trump. I will soon be re-introducing legislation in the Senate to do just that.

There is no rational reason why the HIV treatment Biktarvy costs $45,540 per year in the U.S but only $7,500 per year in France. Or why a weekly dose of the autoimmune medicine Enbrel costs $1,762 in the U.S. but just $300 in Canada. Or why a vial of insulin costs $98.70 in the U.S., but just $11 in Germany.

A life-saving drug is not effective if a person who needs that drug cannot afford it. How many more Americans must die before Congress finally has the guts to stop the pharmaceutical industry from getting away with murder?

BDair 8 Jan 23
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2 comments

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1

Nobody seems to be to concerned that there are drug stores in every shopping center
and in every supermarket. They have drug ads on the speakers as you shop.
Nothing is marketed to the population more than drugs.

BDair Level 8 Jan 24, 2023
1

People just don't get it.
My dad fought prostate cancer 2x & while doing so, I found the Gerson Institute. They heal cancer naturally.
They were FORCED., by big pharma to move across the boarder to Mexico in order to stay open. We still have 1 in the states in Sedona AZ, and they remain open, saying their cure is "theraoy".
Big pharma is like the mafia of prescription drugs and now they're tied in with the government because big brother wants his piece of the action while we who need & can't afford the life saving drugs can all fuck off & die. Yep. They're looking out for #1 & #2, themselves & their wallets.

Emme Level 7 Jan 24, 2023

I agree. While I like Bernie. He is fighting the wrong fight. Our 'healthcare' is corrupted
by Big Pharma and we have everything backwards. Allopathic medicine is a travesty
and is a completely wrong approach. People do not need less expensive pharmaceuticals.
They need a system of prevention and healing that does not require being addicted to
pill popping.

@BDair agreed. 100%

@Emme

All I use is nutritional food and pot on rare occasions. Pretty well for anything.. When I've ever used legal pharma drugs. Something esle gose out of whack in some other part in my body. Like going to a crooked mechanic.

@Castlepaloma I totally understand!

I tried to save two prior girlfriends from dying fron cancer on chemo therapy and radiation. I had many testimony cannabis successes story on video of 85% over 5 years of cancer remission. Compared to 2.3 chemotherapy success rate. Can't unbrainwash a century of Rockefeller gold standard. I grow cannabis medicine, although it's starting to gain ground in Canada.

Big Oil — An Industry Founded on Treachery and Deceit
As noted by Corbett, certain details of the Big Oil story are well known. Others are more obscure. The story begins in rural New York state in the early 19th century, with William Avery Rockefeller, an authentic “snake oil salesman” going by the fictional name of “Dr. Bill Livingston.”

While neither a doctor nor a cancer specialist, Rockefeller, aka “Dr. Livingston,” aka “Devil Bill,” traveled the country’s back roads conning people into buying his “Rock Oil” tonic for cancer — “a useless mixture of laxative and petroleum that had no effect whatsoever,” according to Corbett.

@Castlepaloma wow,what greedy evil bastards!

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