Posted by Michael Wonder on 29 Nov 2018
Billionaire philanthropist John Arnold on drug prices: Congress needs to act
29 November 2018 - Billionaire and philanthropist John Arnold wants Congress to act on drug prices.
“Drug companies are smart. They’re not going to spend $1 billion on politics unless it’s getting them something,” Arnold said on Thursday at the Forbes Healthcare Summit in New York City. “It’s ironic that in some ways the lobbyists for pharma have the easiest job because they advocate for something that the Congress is really good at, which is doing nothing.”
Arnold and his wife founded the nonprofit Laura and John Arnold Foundation in 2008. It has distributed more than $175 million in grants to over 80 healthcare non-profit organisations, universities and institutes like Nutrition Science Initiative, not-for-profit drug company Civica Rx, and Harvard University. The couple’s ultimate goal in health care is to lower spending without compromising quality, and they started their philanthropic journey by advocating for lower drug prices.
