Big Pharma's extortionate drug pricing draws subpoena from House Democrats

Tuesday, December 01, 2015 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: big pharma, drug prices, healthcare

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(NaturalNews) Another pharmaceutical drug dealer is the subject of a government crackdown, as legislators attempt to get to the bottom of a massive legal drug ring that's taking advantage of consumers by charging extortionate prices for drugs that cost mere pennies on the dollar to manufacture.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals witnessed a 12 percent drop in its stock price after House Democrats issued a subpoena demanding that the company turn over key documents explaining why it raised the prices of its drugs by "massive" amounts for seemingly no legitimate reason. Two of the company's heart drugs, for instance, Nitropress and Isuprel, recently saw price hikes of 212 percent and 525 percent, respectively.

Plummeting to its lowest stock value in four years, Valeant seems headed in the same direction as Turing Pharmaceuticals, who's comic book villain lookalike, and the world's "most hated" CEO, Martin Shkreli, was lambasted throughout the media for raising the price of a key drug for AIDS patients by more than 5,500 percent.

"We believe it is critical to hold drug companies to account when they engage in 'a business strategy of buying old neglected drugs and turning them into high-priced specialty drugs,'" wrote the 18 Democratic representatives who filed for the subpoena in a recent letter to Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House's committee on oversight and government reform.

"Valeant is using precisely the same business model as Martin Shkreli. Both appear to be engaging in the same business model of acquiring potentially life-saving drugs to maximize their own corporate profits."

Buying up old, obsolete drugs and reselling them at huge margins is what drug companies now consider as 'research and development'

Presidential contender, Hillary Clinton, hasn't wasted any time vocalizing support for drug industry reform. Hoping to acquire more votes, this industry whore is now pretending as though she cares about pharmaceutical extortion, having recently issued a plan that she says would force drug companies to provide data points on their costs for research and development before setting prices on their drugs.

Part of the Valeant inquiry has revealed that this drug manufacturer spends far less than other companies on R&D, which is the typical excuse drug companies give as to why their drug costs are skyrocketing. "It costs us so much money to investigate these drugs before selling them to consumers," they often say.

But they really don't, it turns out. Most of these extortionist drug companies make obscene profits from all these old drugs they're buying up, rebranding and reselling, which is not only bankrupting the healthcare system, but also robbing consumers of their hard-earned incomes.

Though the motives for this subpoena are questionable – perhaps Valeant hasn't been keeping up with its Democratic campaign contributions? – it will hopefully shine more light on the crumbling pharma oligarchy that's milking the system for all it's worth. And maybe, just maybe, Americans will finally stand up and demand an end to this rule of pharmaceutical terror.

"Just stop subsidizing [the drug industry]...that's all you have to do," wrote one Zero Hedge commenter about the easiest and most common-sense government solution to drug industry extortion.

"Stop defending their prices and their patents...let them hire lawyers and defend them themselves, on a case by case basis. Force them to set their prices in the market, and let them face some real competition, and those prices will come down hard and fast. Government doesn't have to DO anything...just STOP doing and leave it alone."

Sources for this article include:

ZeroHedge.com

Bloomberg.com

SeekingAlpha.com

TheStreet.com