Enormous drug company profits are the primary driver of soaring prescription drug prices in America, according to a damning investigation that Democrats on the House Oversight Committee began releasing Wednesday.
The first two reports in the investigation focus on Celgene and Bristol Myers Squibb's Revlimid cancer treatment, which saw its price hiked 23 times since 2005, and Teva's multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone, which went up in price 27 times since 2007, NBC News reports.
Those costs have little to do with research and development or industry efforts to help people afford medication, as drug companies often claim, according to the probe.
"It's true, many of these pharmaceutical industries have come up with lifesaving and pain-relieving medications, but they're killing us with the prices they charge," said Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) as the hearings began Wednesday. He added that "uninhibited pricing power has transformed America's pain into pharma's profit."
The top Republican on the committee, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, called the investigation a partisan attack. "These hearings seem designed simply to vilify and publicly shame pharmaceutical company executives," Comer said.
Read the full article at NBCNews.com
