Durbin Questions Witnesses During Senate Judiciary Committee Field Hearing In Chicago On Reducing Prescription Drug Costs

10.29.24

Durbin Questions Witnesses During Senate Judiciary Committee Field Hearing In Chicago On Reducing Prescription Drug Costs

CHICAGO - U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today questioned witnesses during the Senate Judiciary Committee field hearing in Chicago, Illinois, entitled "Reducing Prescription Drug Prices: How Competition Can Make Medications Affordable for Patients." The hearing included two witness panels, including Members of Congress from Illinois and advocates for prescription drug pricing reform, to examine recent legislative successes to address anti-competitive tactics that make medications unaffordable for patients.

Durbin first questioned Dr. Anthony D. Douglas II, General Surgery Resident at the University of Chicago, about the Medicare negotiation of Jardiance, a medication to treat people with diabetes, including his father. Jardiance's manufacturer steadily raised the drug's price over the last five years, from around $450 to nearly $600 for a 30-day supply. Under the Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare is finally able to negotiate the price it pays for certain prescription drugs, including Jardiance.And the Biden-Harris Administration was able to negotiate the price for Jardiance down to $197 per month-a 66 percent discount.

"Tell me what that price reduction means to your patients?" Durbin asked.

Dr. Douglas responded that having this necessary medicine reduced in price will mean "saving lives" thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration.

Durbin then asked Dr. Douglas about direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug advertising. The pharmaceutical industry spends $6 billion per year to flood the airwaves with direct-to-consumer drug ads. Durbin and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) introduced the Drug-price Transparency for Consumers (DTC) Act, a bill that would require price disclosures on advertisements for prescription drugs, in order to empower patients and reduce excess spending on medications.

"It strikes me that there are a handful of drugs which we are bombarded with when it comes to advertising-you cannot watch a football game or anything on your television without getting an ad for a drug… The fact that we can pronounce and even spell Xarelto is proof positive that we have been trained by these ads. I am assuming and tell me if I'm wrong, that the pharmaceutical companies basically decided if we can convince the ultimate consumer to go into the doctor's office and say, 'I need this' or whatever it happens to be, that the doctor is going to prescribe it as opposed to questioning whether or not it is necessary or if there is an affordable generic. Is that true?" Durbin asked.

Dr. Douglas responded that he believes that is the drug companies' strategy when targeting consumers through DTC ads. He continued to say, "Not only do they advertise directly to physicians to prescribe the medications but also patients to go into the clinics and hospitals to ask," for example, Ozempic.

Durbin also asked Dr. Michael Sandsmark, Director of Pharmacy, Iroquois Memorial Hospital (IMH), about the long wait lines at pharmacies, including at Walgreens, and even closures.

Dr. Sandsmark responded that there, "is a lot of burnout" among pharmacists right now and corporations are having trouble finding staff. Dr. Sandsmark also commented on the rigorous and expensive price of pharmacy school and training.

Durbin then asked Rachel Sachs, Professor of Law, Washington University in St. Louis, and Kwame Raoul, Attorney General, State of Illinois, about pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)-middlemen that manage drug benefits for insurance plans.

Dr. Sachs responded, "we should think broadly about opportunities at the federal level and state level for PBM reform." In February 2024, Attorney General Raoul along with 38 other attorneys general, sent a letter to Congress expressing support for reforming how PBMs operate. In June, he joined an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a case addressing the states' authority to regulate PBMs.

Durbin then asked Dr. Sachs about claims from the pharmaceutical industry and its allies that the Inflation Reduction Act's common-sense reform to enable Medicare to negotiate for lower prices will "freeze innovation," and potentially prevent new drugs from coming to the market. The cancer drug Keytruda had $25 billion in sales last year. The revenue for this single medication is on par with what Mastercard or the McDonald's Corporation earn per year.

"How can it possibly be that a penny less in profit to Big Pharma will stifle innovation?" Durbin asked.

Dr. Sachs responded, "in my view, what we really care about is the value of innovation to patients. It is about delivering real [and] new clinical value and reforms that preserve and protect that value rather than the amount of innovation are what matters."

Durbin then asked Dr. Douglas about pharmaceutical companies often spending more in sales and marketing than on research and development. Dr. Douglas responded he is aware of the uneven spending. He continued to say we need to put profits over people. In 2020, Johnson & Johnson spent nearly twice as much on sales and marketing-$22 billion-as it spent on R&D.

Video of Durbin's questions in Committee is available here.

Audio of Durbin's questions in Committee is available here.

Footage of Durbin's questions in Committee is available here for TV Stations.

The United States has the highest prescription drug prices in the developed world, on average nearly four times higher than what other countries pay for some of the most common brand-name medications. Despite claims that these prices are necessary to fund research and development into the next generation of drugs, research suggests that the majority of innovation is driven by smaller companies, as well as taxpayer funding through the National Institutes of Health. The Committee has jurisdiction over competition issues and the intellectual property system, which play critical roles in incentivizing true innovation and protecting a healthy market that keeps prices for prescription drugs within reach of the patients that need them.

Durbin, Senate Democrats, and the Biden-Harris Administration have taken numerous steps to lower the costs of prescription drugs. Democrats' Inflation Reduction Actprovided the Administration the authority to negotiate drug prices with Big Pharma, which has already resulted in price reduction of up to 79 percent for 10 of the most expensive and frequently-dispensed prescription drugs for seniors.

Earlier this Congress, a package of bills advanced unanimously out of the Committee to lower prescription drug prices and are awaiting a vote in the full Senate, including the Interagency Patent Coordination and Improvement Act introduced by U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Thom Tillis (R-NC).

Additionally, Durbin held a full committee hearing in May that scrutinized pharmaceutical companies' abuse of the Orange Book and examined prescription drug prices, competition, and how to ensure medications are accessible and affordable for patients.

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