New hear­ing, same blame game: Phar­ma, PBMs trade ac­cu­sa­tions ahead of Sen­ate ses­sion

A day be­fore the Sen­ate’s Health, Ed­u­ca­tion, La­bor, and Pen­sions (HELP) Com­mit­tee meets to dis­cuss the high cost of pre­scrip­tion drugs in Amer­i­ca, the phar­ma in­dus­try and phar­ma­cy ben­e­fit man­agers are once again point­ing fin­gers.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has called three phar­ma CEOs — Mer­ck’s Robert Davis, John­son & John­son’s Joaquin Du­a­to and Bris­tol My­ers Squibb’s Chris Boern­er — to tes­ti­fy Thurs­day on “why the US pays, by far, the high­est prices in the world for pre­scrip­tion drugs.” In a re­port is­sued ahead of the meet­ing, HELP at­tacked the com­pa­nies’ launch prices, lob­by­ing ef­forts and “ex­or­bi­tant” CEO com­pen­sa­tion pack­ages.

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