Sen. Grassley, Senate Finance Committee to Investigate Drug Pricing in First Hearing in 116th Congress

In Global Featured by K Pak

Hearing set for Tuesday, January 29th; AHF Says: “Go Get ‘em, Mr. Chairman!”

WASHINGTON (January 28, 2019) AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) welcomes U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) decision to focus on obscene drug prices at the first hearing in the 116th Congress of the powerful Senate Finance Committee. The drug pricing hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, January 29th (10:15 am ET, 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building) 

Grassley, the committee’s ranking member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) have been highly critical of the industry’s notorious practices which include opposing the re-importation of FDA-approved medicines from Canada, legally paying off generic drug companies in order to stop them from competing against brand name drugs, “ever-greening” patents without any meaningful innovation, and gouging Medicaid – and the poor people who depend on it to survive.

Witnesses for the hearing are listed here: (link: Senate Finance Hearing Witnesses)

“Senator Grassley has the power to make progress on drug pricing in the 116th Congress. His leadership in scheduling this hearing gives hope for millions of Americans whose lives are at risk because of the greed of the drug industry,” said Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

For more than half of its 31-year existence, AIDS Healthcare Foundation has vigorously pursued innovative and aggressive drug pricing advocacy and actions against most major pharmaceutical companies and many of their CEOs starting back in 2002 with domestic and global actions against GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), maker of the first key AIDS drug. As such, AHF thanks Senator

Grassley and welcomes the Senate Finance Committee’s Tuesday hearing on drug pricing.

More recently, AHF produced DRUG$, a documentary that explores the mystery of modern medicine’s skyrocketing price tag here in the U.S. and how it affects people struggling to stay alive. The 79-minute documentary, a Foxhound Productions film, presents deeply humanizing stories, in addition to interviews with academics, patients, advocates and political leaders, including Senator Klobuchur, who is featured in the film in a powerful segment on diabetes and the stranglehold the three makers of insulin have on that market, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD), who is also chairing separate drug pricing hearing in the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Tuesday . To view the film for free on YouTube, and/or for those with Amazon Prime subscriptions, click here to watch ‘DRUG$. (www.drugsthefilm.com)

About AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over one million people in 43 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare .

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