Bernie Sanders Is Determined to Add Prices For Prescribed Drugs in Biden’s Spending Bill
23:57 GMT 31.10.2021 (Updated: 01:04 GMT 01.11.2021)
© REUTERS / EDUARDO MUNOZ
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Senator Bernie Sanders, a long-standing opponent of American pharmaceutical giants, has previously criticized them for their huge profits earned from overcharging prices for medication. According to him, “the business model of the pharmaceutical industry is fraud.”
Bernie Sanders shared on Sunday that he is working on adding “progressive” policies, such as the possibility for the government to negotiate prices for prescribed medicines, to Biden’s $1.75 trillion spending plan.
According to Sanders, Americans are "paying the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs" while the "pharmaceutical industry has spent hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars to make certain that Americans pay ten times more for some drugs than the Canadians and the Mexicans, so that fight continues,” he said in an interview with CNN.
On #CNNSOTU, @SenSanders talks with @DanaBashCNN about former President Donald Trump’s efforts to hide documents from the January 6 committee.https://t.co/mxxB6NMN0a
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) October 31, 2021
He claimed that he would eventually manage to persuade all Democratic Senators despite the fact that two of them, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, oppose the initiative.
“This is not about Sen. Sinema or Sen. Manchin. But here is the bottom line. Last year, the pharmaceutical industry made $50 billion in profit. Last year, the top CEOs made hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars in outrageous levels of compensation, all right?” Sanders said.
According to him, the problem is that “the pharmaceutical industry is doing everything that it can to make sure that one out of four Americans is unable to afford the prescriptions that their doctors write.”
“People are dying. The cost of insulin is totally 10 times more in this country than it is in Canada,” he pointed out.
The business model of the pharmaceutical industry is fraud. Their greed is literally killing Americans. They have spent billions buying politicians & several of their executives became billionaires during the pandemic. Their days of calling the shots in DC must come to an end.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 15, 2021
Sanders’ rhetoric regarding the US pharmaceutical industry has become even harsher with the coronavirus pandemic. According to him, the salaries of the heads of pharmaceutical companies indicate that the whole system is not functioning properly.
Meanwhile, a group of Democrats led by Rep. Angie Craig sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Sunday urging them to add drug-price changes back into the spending bill.
“By allowing the cost of drugs like insulin to rise… we are financing soaring executive salaries, stock buybacks and outrageous profit margins on the backs of our seniors.”
— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) November 1, 2021
Frontline Democrats, led by @RepAngieCraig, urge House leaders to add drug-price changes back into bill. pic.twitter.com/UtaT6lJ3Ye
