October 8, 2014—Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) have sent letters to 14 pharmaceutical manufacturers asking them to explain why the prices of some of their generic drugs have risen so sharply. [ms-protect-content id=”2799″]
Sen. Sanders chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging and Rep. Cummings is the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Their letters cite a Healthcare Supply Chain Association survey of prices that group purchasing organizations paid for 10 generic drugs over the past year. The largest percentage increases (from October 2013 to April 2014) were for:
- doxycycline (antibiotic), 8,281 percent
- albuterol (pulmonary), 4,014 percent
- glycopyrrolate (cardiac), 2,728 percent
“It is unacceptable that Americans pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs,” Sen. Sanders said in an Oct. 2 statement. “Generic drugs were meant to help make medications affordable for the millions of Americans who rely on prescriptions to manage their health needs. We’ve got to get to the bottom of these enormous price increases.”
“When you see how much the prices of these drugs have increased just over the past year, it’s staggering, and we want to know why,” Rep. Cummings added.
The 340B ceiling price for a generic drug is average manufacturer price minus 13 percent. Many hospitals enrolled in the 340B program have been expressing concerns about the rising cost of generics.
The lawmakers gave the 14 companies until Oct. 23 deadline to provide information from 2012 to the present, including total gross revenues from sales of the drugs, prices paid for the drugs, factors that contributed to decisions to increase prices, and the identity of company officials responsible for setting drug prices.
The companies are:
- Actavis plc
- Apotex Corp.
- Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd.
- Endo International plc
- Global Pharmaceuticals
- Heritage Pharmaceuticals Inc.
- Lannett Company, Inc.
- Marathon Pharmaceuticals, LLC
- Mylan Inc.
- PAR Pharmaceutical Companies Inc.
- Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Inc.
- Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.
- West-Ward Pharmaceutical Corp.
- Zydus Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. [/ms-protect-content]