The CEOs of America’s largest drug companies will testify on Capitol Hill today. But will U.S. senators really hold their feet to the fire after taking so much money from those same drug companies?

Big Pharma Gives Big Money to the Senators Who Will Question Drug Company CEOs Today

Americans pay the highest drug prices in the world for absolutely no good reason. The drug companies will tell you that it’s because American consumers are financing “innovation,” but the real reason is that the U.S. doesn’t have price control laws that limit what drug companies can charge, unlike much of the world and every wealthy country. And U.S. senators, both Republicans and Democrats alike, are each raking in thousands of dollars every year from the pharmaceutical industry.

The drug companies spent over $230 million lobbying last year alone. But how much do senators on the Finance Committee get directly from Big Pharma? Thanks to the website Open Secrets, we know exactly how much they got last year. And it’ll be helpful to keep that information in mind as these same people are questioning the drug company CEOs today.
(see article to see who gets how much from lobbyists)
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Grassley’s modest reforms have included a proposal to require that the price of drugs be included in TV ads. But such measures only serve to show how out of touch American lawmakers are with the rest of the world. The U.S. and New Zealand are the only two countries that even allow direct to consumer advertising of prescription medications in the first place—advertising that creates artificial demand for specific brand name drugs. But even these modest and inconsequential reforms can’t get through. Grassley’s ad pricing bill died in the House.

While he’s taken in far less money than most, Grassley’s legislation serves as an example of just how broken everything really is. Senator Grassley received “only” $12,000 from Big Pharma last year. Calling Grassley a reformer is a bit like praising the shiniest turd in the turd contest.

Will any member of congress who gets money from drug lobbyists really get to the bottom of their price gauging? Puleasee. "We’re not holding our breath, but we may want to anyway. This is a turd contest, after all." Remember Heather Bresch, Joe Manchin's daughter who is the CEO of Mylan that makes EpiPens who raised the prices of the EpiPen from roughly $57 in 2007 to $600 in 2016?

Mylan’s CEO, Heather Bresch, testified and endured criticism. But then everyone went home and things went back to normal as consumers continued to get hosed. The chairman of Mylan reportedly said in private that anyone who was criticizing their practices could go fuck themselves. The CEO even lied to Congress, saying that Mylan made a lot less profit than they actually did. Nobody went to jail and nothing changed in any significant way.

BTW. What happened to Trump's promise of negotiating drug prices for Medicare? The top lawyer for Novartis paid $1.2 million to Cohen's shell company for access to Trump after he ran on controlling drug prices for Medicare. Of course Trump wasn't the only one in recent history running on helping us with our insidiously ridiculous health care. The one before him sure ran on bring us single payer and look at what we ended up with. Warmed over Romneycare.

“We don’t believe either of these proposals would put American patients first. They would move us toward the kind of socialized medicine systems that have such a notorious reputation for poor quality and access.”

Again the problem is money in politics and our living in an oligarchy where our government doesn't give a rat's ass whether we live or die. I'm beginning to think that they are allowing drug companies to raise their prices to anywhere they want so that those of us who can't afford to buy them just shuffles off this mortal coil. Am I wrong?