Merck, J&J CEOs conform to testify in Senate listening to on drug costs

The CEOs of Merck and Johnson & Johnson have voluntarily agreed to testify at an upcoming Senate hearing on excessive drug costs within the U.S., Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced Friday, as lawmakers ramp up efforts to rein in health-care costs for People. 

The Senate Well being, Training, Labor and Pensions Committee’s listening to is scheduled for Feb. 8 at 10 a.m. ET.  

The panel had deliberate to vote to subpoena J&J CEO Joaquin Duato and Merck CEO Robert Davis to testify after each executives declined earlier requests to seem on the listening to. These subpoenas would have been the first issued by the committee since 1981. 

In the meantime, Bristol Myers Squibb CEO Chris Boerner and one other unnamed pharmaceutical CEO agreed to preliminary invites to testify. 

The panel will ask every government to offer testimony about why their firms cost considerably increased costs for medication within the U.S. than in different international locations. The push to chop drug costs is without doubt one of the uncommon points that has united each main political events in recent times — although they’ve usually backed totally different approaches to doing so.

Sanders, who chairs the Senate Well being panel, famous that every one three firms manufacture among the most costly medicine bought within the U.S., together with Merck’s diabetes drug Januvia, J&J’s blood most cancers therapy Imbruvica and Bristol Myers Squibb’s blood thinner Eliquis. 

All three of these remedies will likely be topic to the primary spherical of Medicare drug worth negotiations, a key coverage below President Joe Biden’s Inflation Discount Act that goals to make expensive drugs extra reasonably priced for seniors. J&J, Merck and Bristol Myers Squib are all suing to halt the talks, which is able to set up new costs that can go into impact in 2026. 

“I hope very much that the CEOs of these major pharmaceutical companies will take a serious look at these incredible price discrepancies and work with us to substantially reduce the prices they charge the American people for these and other prescription drugs,” Sanders stated in a press release Friday. 

In a press release, a Merck spokesperson stated “we trust that this will be a productive hearing aimed at enhancing the committee’s understanding of the pharmaceutical industry and finding common sense solutions to the challenges facing patients.”

The corporate had supplied its U.S. president as a witness, arguing that official was higher outfitted to discipline questions on drug pricing, in keeping with the spokesperson. However the committee declined.

A spokesperson for J&J stated the corporate appears ahead to “building an understanding of our longstanding efforts to improve affordability and access to medicines.”

Final yr, the Senate Well being Committee equally heard testimony from the CEOs of Moderna, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi on excessive drug costs.