Big Pharma keeps ripping you off

Los Angeles Times

“I have type 1 diabetes. Without insulin, I will die,” said David Lazarus. “You could charge me whatever you like. If I have the money, I’ll pay it.” That, in a nutshell, is the problem with the drug industry. We’re the only developed country that has no system to ensure drug prices are reasonable, and leaves patients to fend for themselves. Pfizer said in July that it would reconsider its strategy of regular price increases as a “goodwill gesture” while the president rolled out a plan to cut drug costs. Four months later, the Trump pharma plan is still wishful thinking. And Pfizer has seen an increase in quarterly profit of 45 percent. “These guys are

rolling in cash.” And what about that promise of limiting price increases? Pfizer’s CEO, Ian Read, says that come January, it will be “business as normal.” Meaning that “Pfizer will once again reach as deeply as possible into people’s pockets.” While the industry refuses to give desperate customers a break, it has poured more than $216 million into lobbying this year. So it’s hard to imagine Congress passing legislation that would cut into drug makers’ profits. And the industry knows that Trump’s talk about drug prices is all bark and no bite. Pfizer and other drug companies plan to keep gouging sick people, and they don’t care what anybody thinks of that.