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Prescription Drug Costs
Madam President, last week, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly announced that it was going to lower the price of its insulin product. It is called Humalog. They are going to lower it dramatically by 70 percent and cap the out-of-pocket costs for insulin at $35 a month. After two decades of price gouging, this is a major relief for more than 7 million patients--more than 200,000 living in my State of Illinois--who depend on insulin every day to stay alive.
But, despite the importance of this announcement, I won't be sending thank-you cards to the executives of this pharmaceutical company. You see, it was a century ago--100 years ago--when basic forms of insulin were discovered. The Nobel Prize-winning researchers who pioneered that discovery surrendered the patent rights--their property rights--in this new discovery for $1. Why? To prevent profiteering on this lifesaving medication.
Now fast-forward almost 100 years to 1996. Eli Lilly introduces its insulin drug Humalog. They set the price of a vial of this insulin at
$21. It made sense, as it only cost a few dollars to manufacture. But in the years since 1996, Eli Lilly prioritized profits over patients. The same vial of insulin that Eli Lilly first sold for $21 was now being sold for $300. Eli Lilly raised the price more than 30 separate times.
What happened to the same drug, made by the same company, sold in Canada? It was only $40. But it was $300 in the United States. Is it any wonder that Eli Lilly generated more than $22 billion in revenue from insulin alone in 2014 and 2018?
Let me repeat that. There was $22 billion in revenue during that 4-
year period.
Let's be clear. During the same time, Eli Lilly spent $1.5 billion on sales and marketing for insulin. Try to turn on the television set and get away with not seeing a pharmaceutical commercial from this company and so many others. Eli Lilly spent four times more than it spent on research for marketing this product and others.
The company's profit-taking on this life-or-death drug has had deadly consequences. When the price went up to $300 a month, many people just couldn't afford it. More than 1 million Americans report having to ration or cut back doses of insulin--an extremely dangerous gamble.
I received a letter from one of my constituents from Palos Park, who faced that. His name is Phil. He is 73 years old. Phil told me he has had to skip insulin injections because of the cost. He wrote that he was ``anxiously awaiting lower prescription prices.''
Well, there is good news for Phil and a lot of other Americans. You don't have to wait any longer. Last year, the Democrats lowered the cost of prescription drugs.
Why didn't I say that the Senate lowered the cost? Because not a single Republican would vote for it--not one.
We enacted a new penalty to stop Pharma's outrageous price hikes. We enabled Medicare to finally negotiate lower prices. We also made vaccines, like the shingles vaccine, which costs nearly $400 a course, entirely free for seniors under Medicare. We have said that no senior on Medicare will pay more than $2,000 out-of-pocket for medications in a year. Finally, we capped the price of insulin at $35 a month.
All of these measures were part of the Inflation Reduction Act, which President Biden signed into law and Republican Members of the House are now saying they want to repeal in its entirety. Clearly, our legislation put Big Pharma on notice. It let them know their days of price gouging are numbered.
We are not finished. There are now two very different visions of healthcare in America: the Democratic vision and the Republican vision. Instead of voting to cap insulin prices, Republicans blocked our proposal that would have applied the $35 premium to all Americans and not just senior citizens. We needed 10 Republican votes on the floor. We got 7. And get this. Now many Republicans are talking about repealing the whole law and raising drug prices--exactly what America does not need.
As long as we are in charge in the Senate and have a President in the White House, we won't let it happen. In fact, we want to work with Republicans, if they are willing, to do more. Let's extend the $35 insulin cap to all other diabetic patients in America. Is that a radical idea? Senator Warnock of Georgia has a bill to do this. The question: Are the Republicans willing to join us? That is what it takes to pass it.
While we are at it, let's put an end to Pharma's scheme to unjustifiably extend monopolies and harm patients' access to drugs. Last month, the Senate Judiciary Committee, which I chair, reported out five bipartisan bills to address patent abuse and other tactics that prevent generic drugs from coming on the market, keeping prices high for American families.
The full Senate should take up and pass these bills, and we should pass the bill that I have introduced with the Republican from Iowa, Senator Grassley, to address the outrageous direct-to-consumer drug ads that we all see on television.
We all see them. On average, every American who watches TV is going to see nine drug ads every single day. How many countries allow the advertising of drugs on television? Two, the United States of America and New Zealand. Go figure. Pharma spent $6 billion a year flooding the airwaves so that the average American sees all of those ads that promote the most expensive drugs in the world. Pharma thinks, if they bombard you enough with ads so that you finally get to the point you might be able to spell Xarelto, you will insist to your doctor that that is the blood thinner you want even though there may be less expensive alternatives that are just as effective.
Well, Senator Grassley and I have a radical idea. If they can put all of those disclaimers on those ads and give you all the information and say things that sound nonsensical on their face--if you are allergic to this drug, don't take this drug--how do I know I am allergic? Well, if you put all of that on there, they ought to be able to put for 5 seconds on every ad the cost of the drug--the cost of the drug.
You would be amazed. Some of these drugs cost $9,000 and $10,000 a month, and they are peddling them on the air like they are just pretty common, pretty affordable. They are not. If they are advertising a drug and rattling off side effects, they should disclose the price up front. It is a basic step toward transparency for patients. Even former President Trump agreed with us on this one. He supported our efforts.
I am glad we capped the price of insulin, but there is a lot more to do. I hope it will be bipartisan. If it isn't bipartisan, it is going nowhere. I hope the Republicans join us as people across America celebrate the affordability of prescription drugs for Medicare recipients.
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 169, No. 42
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
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