Senators grill Alex Azar on drug prices; MorphoSys sells rights to Darzalex rival in $120M deal; Serial dealmaker X-Chem enters new discovery pact with Gilead
→ Alex Azar faced a group of skeptical senators on Wednesday, Democrats and Republicans, as they reviewed his nomination as chief of HHS under President Donald Trump. And for the bulk of the first half of the discussion, the subject was drug prices; as in, the price of drugs is too damn high. Azar, who wrapped a lengthy stint as a senior exec at Eli Lilly about a year ago, was not known for driving down drug prices. But he repeatedly agreed that drug prices need to come down now. In one of the sharpest attacks, Republican Rand Paul told Azar he has a lot of work to do to convince the American people that he’s working on their behalf, rather than Big Pharma. And he vowed to withhold his support unless Azar could come up with an effective reimportation plan. Despite the back-and-forth, Azar will likely win confirmation and isn’t expected to do much beyond encouraging more generic drug approvals as a strategy to rein in drug prices.
Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.
You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.