BIG PHARMA WATCH: REPRESENTATIVE KATIE PORTER HIGHLIGHTS BIG PHARMA’S OUTRAGEOUS CANCER DRUG LAUNCH PRICES

New Report Finds Brand Name Drug Companies Increased Prices on New Oncology Treatments by 25 Percent Over Four Years

This week, U.S. Representative Katie Porter (D-CA) released a report, “Skyrocketing: How Big Pharma Exploits Launch Prices to Cash in on Cancer,” investigating Big Pharma’s increasingly outrageous launch prices on new cancer drugs — and adding for the momentum for Congress to build on recent positive progress toward holding Big Pharma accountable.

The report found Big Pharma companies increased launch prices on new oncology drugs by 25 percent, to an average of $235,000 per year, from 2017 to 2021.

“Our report is clear: the prices Big Pharma sets for new cures show that these companies think of cancer more like a business opportunity than a life-threatening disease,” Porter said. “For Congress to maximize the Inflation Reduction Act’s protections for patients and taxpayers, we must double down on fighting corporate abuse in drug pricing. Our office’s new report lays a framework for future reforms to address another major driver of high pharmaceutical costs: increasing launch prices for new drugs.”

Porter’s report comes following a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine that found no correlation between the prices set by Big Pharma on cancer drugs and their effectiveness for patients. “Cancer drugs are priced based predominantly on what the market will bear,” the authors of the study concluded. In other words, Big Pharma sets prices to maximize profits, not based on clinical value or outcomes for patients.

Read more about how Big Pharma’s pricing practices are driving a crisis of affordability for cancer patients HERE.

Read more about how Big Pharma targets cancer drugs to boost profits HERE.

Read more about how Big Pharma is on track to set record-high launch prices on new brand name drugs this year HERE.

Learn more about bipartisan, market-based solutions to hold Big Pharma accountable HERE.